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. 1991 May 1;88(9):3734–3738. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.9.3734

Purification of the centromere-specific protein CENP-A and demonstration that it is a distinctive histone.

D K Palmer 1, K O'Day 1, H L Trong 1, H Charbonneau 1, R L Margolis 1
PMCID: PMC51527  PMID: 2023923

Abstract

CENP-A, a centromere-specific 17-kDa protein, has histone-like properties. However, in contrast to the common somatic histones, CENP-A is quantitatively retained in bull spermatozoa, and we have exploited this fact to purify CENP-A to apparent homogeneity. Partial sequence analysis of the purified protein indicates that CENP-A is a distinctive gene product. Some CENP-A sequences are highly similar to regions of histone H3. Other segments of CENP-A are not related to H3 or any other histone. These unrelated segments are presumably involved in localizing CENP-A to centromeric DNA or in centromere-specific functions of CENP-A.

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Selected References

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