Fig. 1. Overview of the centromeric genetic and epigenetic variation between two human genomes.

Complete assembly of centromeres from two hydatidiform moles, CHM1 and CHM13, reveals both small- and large-scale variation in centromere sequence, structure and epigenetic landscape. The CHM1 and CHM13 centromeres are shown on the left and right, respectively, between each pair of chromosomes. The length (in Mb) of the α-satellite higher-order repeat (HOR) array(s) is indicated, and the location of centromeric chromatin, marked by the presence of the histone H3 variant CENP-A, is indicated by a dark red circle. Transposable elements that are polymorphic in these regions are shown in Supplementary Fig. 73. Mon./div., monomeric/diverged.