Centrophilic retrotransposon integration via CENH3 chromatin in Arabidopsis

ITO Hidetaka

Department of Biological Sciences

Jan. 08, 2025

シロイヌナズナの近縁種 Arabidopsis lyrataの花

Joint press release (in Japanese)

Abstract
In organisms ranging from vertebrates to plants, major components of centromeres are rapidly evolving repeat sequences, such as tandem repeats (TRs) and transposable elements (TEs), which harbour centromere-specific histone H3 (CENH3). Complete centromere structures recently determined in human and Arabidopsis suggest frequent integration and purging of retrotransposons within the TR regions of centromeres. Despite the high impact of ‘centrophilic’ retrotransposons on the paradox of rapid centromere evolution, the mechanisms involved in centromere targeting remain poorly understood in any organism.
Here we show that both Ty3 and Ty1 long terminal repeat retrotransposons rapidly turnover within the centromeric TRs of Arabidopsis species. We demonstrate that ….

Read more on Nature

Article information:
Sayuri Tsukahara, Alexandros Bousios, Estela Perez-Roman, Sota Yamaguchi, Basile Leduque, Aimi Nakano, Matthew Naish, Akihisa Osakabe, Atsushi Toyoda, Hidetaka Ito, Alejandro Edera, Sayaka Tominaga, Juliarni, Kae Kato, Shoko Oda, Soichi Inagaki, Zdravko Lorković, Kiyotaka Nagaki, Frédéric Berger, Akira Kawabe, Leandro Quadrana, Ian Henderson & Tetsuji Kakutani. Centrophilic retrotransposon integration via CENH3 chromatin in Arabidopsis.Nature (2025). 
DOI:10.1038/s41586-024-08319-7