Genetic and genomic analysis of the AT-rich centromere DNA element II of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Molecular Genetics and MicrobiologyDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2005-08-05Keywords
AT Rich SequenceBase Composition
Base Sequence
Centromere
Chromosomes, Fungal
Computational Biology
DNA Primers
DNA, Fungal
Gene Library
Genomics
Molecular Sequence Data
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Life Sciences
Medicine and Health Sciences
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Centromere DNA element II (CDEII) of budding yeast centromeres is an AT-rich sequence essential for centromere (CEN) function. Sequence analysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae CDEIIs revealed that A(5-7)/T(5-7) tracts are statistically overrepresented at the expense of AA/TT and alternating AT. To test the hypothesis that this nonrandom sequence organization is functionally important, a CEN library in which the CDEII sequences were randomized was generated. The library was screened for functional and nonfunctional members following centromere replacement in vivo. Functional CENs contained CDEIIs with the highly biased A(n)/T(n) run distribution of native centromeres, while nonfunctional CDEIIs resembled those picked from the library at random. Run content, defined as the fraction of residues present in runs of four or more nucleotides, of the functional and nonfunctional CDEII populations differed significantly (P < 0.001). Computer searches of the genome for regions with an A + T content comparable to CDEIIs revealed that such loci are not unique to centromeres, but for 14 of the 16 chromosomes the AT-rich locus with the highest A(n > or =4) + T(n > or =4) run content was the centromere. Thus, the distinctive and nonrandom sequence organization of CDEII is important for centromere function and possesses informational content that could contribute to the determination of centromere identity.Source
Genetics. 2005 Dec;171(4):1463-75. Epub 2005 Aug 3. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1534/genetics.105.046458Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/42238PubMed ID
16079225Related Resources
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1534/genetics.105.046458