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Centromeres and Kinetochores pp 213–231Cite as

Post-translational Modifications of Centromeric Chromatin

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Part of the book series: Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology ((PMSB,volume 56))

Abstract

Regulation of chromatin structures is important for the control of DNA processes such as gene expression, and misregulation of chromatin is implicated in diverse diseases. Covalent post-translational modifications of histones are a prominent way to regulate chromatin structure and different chromatin regions bear their specific signature of histone modifications. The composition of centromeric chromatin is significantly different from other chromatin structures and mainly defined by the presence of the histone H3-variant CENP-A. Here we summarize the composition of centromeric chromatin and what we know about its differential regulation by post-translational modifications.

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Abbreviations

aa:

Amino acid

C. elegans :

Caenorhabditis elegans

CAL1:

Chromosome alignment defect 1

CID:

Centromere identifier (Drosophila)

Dam:

Deoxyadenosine methylase

D. melanogaster :

Drosophila melanogaster

Dnmt:

DNA methyltransferase

HACs:

Human artificial chromosomes

HAT B:

Histone acetyltransferase B

HDACs:

Histone Deacetylases

HFD:

Histone fold domain

HJURP:

Holliday junction-recognition protein

H3:

Histone 3

LSD1:

Lysine-specific demethylase 1

PTM:

Post-translational modifications

PcG:

Polycomb group

Plk:

Polo-like kinase

RCC1:

Regulator of chromatin condensation 1

Rdx:

Roadkill

S. cerevisiae :

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

S. pombe :

Schizosaccharomyces pombe

TrxG:

Trithorax group

Z. may :

Zea mays

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Acknowledgements

We apologize to those authors whose work we did not cite because of space limitations. We thank Anne-Laure Pauleau, Engin Demirdizen, and Aubry K. Miller for comments on the manuscript and the entire Erhardt lab for fruitful discussions. Work in the Erhardt laboratory is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC81, SFB1036, and ER576/2-2) and the European Research Council (ERC-CoG-682496). AGA is a member of the Hartmut Hoffmann-Berling International Graduate School of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

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  1. Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg (ZMBH), DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Ana García del Arco & Sylvia Erhardt

  2. Cell Networks Excellence Cluster, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sylvia Erhardt

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  1. Ana García del Arco
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  2. Sylvia Erhardt
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Correspondence to Sylvia Erhardt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Ben E. Black

Glossary

Histone code

It describes the hypothesis that the genetic information encoded in the DNA with a four-letter code is controlled by diverse post-translational modifications of histones which act in combination to provide binding sites for specific regulatory proteins depending on the combinatorial use of histone modifications.

PTM

Post-translational modifications are covalent modifications of proteins catalyzed by enzymes, which occur after proteins translation is completed.

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García del Arco, A., Erhardt, S. (2017). Post-translational Modifications of Centromeric Chromatin. In: Black, B. (eds) Centromeres and Kinetochores. Progress in Molecular and Subcellular Biology, vol 56. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58592-5_9

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