TY - JOUR
T1 - CENP-A binding domains and recombination patterns in horse spermatocytes
AU - Cappelletti, Eleonora
AU - Piras, Francesca M.
AU - Badiale, Claudia
AU - Bambi, Marina
AU - Santagostino, Marco
AU - Vara, Covadonga
AU - Masterson, Teri A.
AU - Sullivan, Kevin F.
AU - Nergadze, Solomon G.
AU - Ruiz-Herrera, Aurora
AU - Giulotto, Elena
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Centromeres exert an inhibitory effect on meiotic recombination, but the possible contribution of satellite DNA to this “centromere effect” is under debate. In the horse, satellite DNA is present at all centromeres with the exception of the one from chromosome 11. This organization of centromeres allowed us to investigate the role of satellite DNA on recombination suppression in horse spermatocytes at the stage of pachytene. To this aim we analysed the distribution of the MLH1 protein, marker of recombination foci, relative to CENP-A, marker of centromeric function. We demonstrated that the satellite-less centromere of chromosome 11 causes crossover suppression, similarly to satellite-based centromeres. These results suggest that the centromere effect does not depend on satellite DNA. During this analysis, we observed a peculiar phenomenon: while, as expected, the centromere of the majority of meiotic bivalent chromosomes was labelled with a single immunofluorescence centromeric signal, double-spotted or extended signals were also detected. Their number varied from 0 to 7 in different cells. This observation can be explained by positional variation of the centromeric domain on the two homologs and/or misalignment of pericentromeric satellite DNA arrays during homolog pairing confirming the great plasticity of equine centromeres.
AB - Centromeres exert an inhibitory effect on meiotic recombination, but the possible contribution of satellite DNA to this “centromere effect” is under debate. In the horse, satellite DNA is present at all centromeres with the exception of the one from chromosome 11. This organization of centromeres allowed us to investigate the role of satellite DNA on recombination suppression in horse spermatocytes at the stage of pachytene. To this aim we analysed the distribution of the MLH1 protein, marker of recombination foci, relative to CENP-A, marker of centromeric function. We demonstrated that the satellite-less centromere of chromosome 11 causes crossover suppression, similarly to satellite-based centromeres. These results suggest that the centromere effect does not depend on satellite DNA. During this analysis, we observed a peculiar phenomenon: while, as expected, the centromere of the majority of meiotic bivalent chromosomes was labelled with a single immunofluorescence centromeric signal, double-spotted or extended signals were also detected. Their number varied from 0 to 7 in different cells. This observation can be explained by positional variation of the centromeric domain on the two homologs and/or misalignment of pericentromeric satellite DNA arrays during homolog pairing confirming the great plasticity of equine centromeres.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074256836&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52153-1
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52153-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 31676881
AN - SCOPUS:85074256836
VL - 9
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
IS - 1
M1 - 15800
ER -