The genetic and epigenetic landscape of the Arabidopsis centromeres

A closer look at centromeres Centromeres are key for anchoring chromosomes to the mitotic spindle, but they have been difficult to sequence because they can contain many repeating DNA elements. These repeats, however, carry regularly spaced, distinctive sequence markers because of sequence heterogeneity between the mostly, but not completely, identical DNA sequence repeats. Such differences aid sequence assembly. Naish et al . used ultra-long-read DNA sequencing to establish a reference assembly that resolves all five centromeres in the small mustard plant Arabidopsis . Their view into the subtly homogenized world of centromeres reveals retrotransposons that interrupt centromere organization and repressive DNA methylation that excludes centromeres from meiotic crossover repair. Thus, Arabidopsis centromeres evolve under the opposing forces of sequence homogenization and retrotransposon disruption. —PJH