TY - JOUR
T1 - Endogenous transcription at the centromere facilitates centromere activity in budding yeast
AU - Ohkuni, Kentaro
AU - Kitagawa, Katsumi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank V. Measday for her helpful comments, Y. Kawasaki for his technical advice, members of the Katsumi and Risa Kitagawa laboratories for stimulating conversation and advice, and P. Hieter, S. Buratowski, S.G. Oliver, and R. Deshaies for their generous gifts of reagents. This work was supported by the Cancer Center Support Grant CA21765 from the National Cancer Institute, by National Institutes of Health grant GM68418, by American Cancer Society Research Grant RSG-07-144-01-CCG, and by the American Lebanese Syrian Association Charities.
PY - 2011/10/25
Y1 - 2011/10/25
N2 - Background: The centromere (CEN) DNA-kinetochore complex is the specialized chromatin structure that mediates chromosome attachment to the spindle and is required for high-fidelity chromosome segregation. Although kinetochore function is conserved from budding yeast to humans, it was thought that transcription had no role in centromere function in budding yeast, in contrast to other eukaryotes including fission yeast. Results: We report here that transcription at the centromere facilitates centromere activity in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We identified transcripts at CEN DNA and found that Cbf1, which is a transcription factor that binds to CEN DNA, is required for transcription at CEN DNA. Chromosome instability of cbf1Δ cells is suppressed by transcription driven from an artificial promoter. Furthermore, we have identified Ste12, which is a transcription factor, and Dig1, a Ste12 inhibitor, as a novel CEN-associated protein complex by an in vitro kinetochore assembly system. Dig1 represses Ste12-dependent transcription at the centromere. Conclusions: Our studies reveal that transcription at the centromere plays an important role in centromere function in budding yeast.
AB - Background: The centromere (CEN) DNA-kinetochore complex is the specialized chromatin structure that mediates chromosome attachment to the spindle and is required for high-fidelity chromosome segregation. Although kinetochore function is conserved from budding yeast to humans, it was thought that transcription had no role in centromere function in budding yeast, in contrast to other eukaryotes including fission yeast. Results: We report here that transcription at the centromere facilitates centromere activity in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We identified transcripts at CEN DNA and found that Cbf1, which is a transcription factor that binds to CEN DNA, is required for transcription at CEN DNA. Chromosome instability of cbf1Δ cells is suppressed by transcription driven from an artificial promoter. Furthermore, we have identified Ste12, which is a transcription factor, and Dig1, a Ste12 inhibitor, as a novel CEN-associated protein complex by an in vitro kinetochore assembly system. Dig1 represses Ste12-dependent transcription at the centromere. Conclusions: Our studies reveal that transcription at the centromere plays an important role in centromere function in budding yeast.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2011.08.056
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2011.08.056
M3 - Article
C2 - 22000103
AN - SCOPUS:80055005108
SN - 0960-9822
VL - 21
SP - 1695
EP - 1703
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
IS - 20
ER -