Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Jan;85(1):175–179. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.1.175

Chromatin structure of altered yeast centromeres.

M Saunders 1, M Fitzgerald-Hayes 1, K Bloom 1
PMCID: PMC279506  PMID: 2829168

Abstract

We have investigated the chromatin structure of wild-type and mutationally altered centromere sequences in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using an indirect end-labeling mapping strategy. Wild-type centromere DNA from chromosome III (CEN3) exhibits a nuclease-resistant chromatin structure 220-250 base pairs long, centered around the conserved centromere DNA element (CDE) III. A point mutation in CDE III that changes a central cytidine to a thymidine and completely disrupts centromere function has lost the chromatin conformation typically associated with the wild-type centromere. A second conserved DNA element, CDE I, is spatially separated from CDE III by 78-86 A + T-rich base pairs, which is termed CDE II. The sequence and spatial requirements for CDE II are less stringent; alterations in CDE II length and sequence can be tolerated to a limited extent. Nuclease-resistant cores are altered in dimension in two CDE II CEN3 mutations. Two CDE I deletion mutations that retain partial centromere function also show nuclease-resistant regions of reduced size and intensity. The results from a number of such altered centromeres indicate a correlation between the presence of a protected core and centromere function.

Full text

PDF
175

Images in this article

177Image
on p.177
177Image
on p.177
178Image
on p.178
178Image
on p.178
178Image
on p.178

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bloom K. S., Amaya E., Carbon J., Clarke L., Hill A., Yeh E. Chromatin conformation of yeast centromeres. J Cell Biol. 1984 Nov;99(5):1559–1568. doi: 10.1083/jcb.99.5.1559. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bloom K. S., Carbon J. Yeast centromere DNA is in a unique and highly ordered structure in chromosomes and small circular minichromosomes. Cell. 1982 Jun;29(2):305–317. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90147-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bloom K. S., Fitzgerald-Hayes M., Carbon J. Structural analysis and sequence organization of yeast centromeres. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 1983;47(Pt 2):1175–1185. doi: 10.1101/sqb.1983.047.01.133. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Carbon J., Clarke L. Structural and functional analysis of a yeast centromere (CEN3). J Cell Sci Suppl. 1984;1:43–58. doi: 10.1242/jcs.1984.supplement_1.4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Clarke L., Carbon J. Genomic substitutions of centromeres in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Nature. 1983 Sep 1;305(5929):23–28. doi: 10.1038/305023a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Clarke L., Carbon J. Isolation of a yeast centromere and construction of functional small circular chromosomes. Nature. 1980 Oct 9;287(5782):504–509. doi: 10.1038/287504a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Clarke L., Carbon J. The structure and function of yeast centromeres. Annu Rev Genet. 1985;19:29–55. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ge.19.120185.000333. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Fitzgerald-Hayes M., Clarke L., Carbon J. Nucleotide sequence comparisons and functional analysis of yeast centromere DNAs. Cell. 1982 May;29(1):235–244. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(82)90108-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Gaudet A., Fitzgerald-Hayes M. Alterations in the adenine-plus-thymine-rich region of CEN3 affect centromere function in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Jan;7(1):68–75. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.1.68. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hegemann J. H., Pridmore R. D., Schneider R., Philippsen P. Mutations in the right boundary of Saccharomyces cerevisiae centromere 6 lead to nonfunctional or partially functional centromeres. Mol Gen Genet. 1986 Nov;205(2):305–311. doi: 10.1007/BF00430443. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Hieter P., Pridmore D., Hegemann J. H., Thomas M., Davis R. W., Philippsen P. Functional selection and analysis of yeast centromeric DNA. Cell. 1985 Oct;42(3):913–921. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90287-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hill A., Bloom K. Genetic manipulation of centromere function. Mol Cell Biol. 1987 Jul;7(7):2397–2405. doi: 10.1128/mcb.7.7.2397. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Koshland D., Rutledge L., Fitzgerald-Hayes M., Hartwell L. H. A genetic analysis of dicentric minichromosomes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cell. 1987 Mar 13;48(5):801–812. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(87)90077-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Maine G. T., Surosky R. T., Tye B. K. Isolation and characterization of the centromere from chromosome V (CEN5) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol. 1984 Jan;4(1):86–91. doi: 10.1128/mcb.4.1.86. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Mann C., Davis R. W. Instability of dicentric plasmids in yeast. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Jan;80(1):228–232. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.1.228. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. McGrew J., Diehl B., Fitzgerald-Hayes M. Single base-pair mutations in centromere element III cause aberrant chromosome segregation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Feb;6(2):530–538. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.2.530. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Murray A. W., Szostak J. W. Pedigree analysis of plasmid segregation in yeast. Cell. 1983 Oct;34(3):961–970. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(83)90553-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Panzeri L., Landonio L., Stotz A., Philippsen P. Role of conserved sequence elements in yeast centromere DNA. EMBO J. 1985 Jul;4(7):1867–1874. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03862.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Panzeri L., Philippsen P. Centromeric DNA from chromosome VI in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. EMBO J. 1982;1(12):1605–1611. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1982.tb01362.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Stinchcomb D. T., Mann C., Davis R. W. Centromeric DNA from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J Mol Biol. 1982 Jun 25;158(2):157–190. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(82)90427-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Wu C. The 5' ends of Drosophila heat shock genes in chromatin are hypersensitive to DNase I. Nature. 1980 Aug 28;286(5776):854–860. doi: 10.1038/286854a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES