A long non-coding RNA is required for targeting centromeric protein A to the human centromere

  1. Delphine Quenet
  2. Yamini Dalal  Is a corresponding author
  1. Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, United States

Abstract

The centromere is a specialized chromatin region marked by the histone H3 variant CENP-A. Although active centromeric transcription has been documented for over a decade, the role of centromeric transcription or transcripts has been elusive. Here, we report that centromeric α-satellite transcription is dependent on RNA Polymerase II and occurs at late mitosis into early G1, concurrent with the timing of new CENP-A assembly. Inhibition of RNA Polymerase II-dependent transcription abrogates the recruitment of CENP-A and its chaperone HJURP to native human centromeres. Biochemical characterization of CENP-A associated RNAs reveals a 1.3 kb molecule which originates from centromeres, which physically interacts with the soluble pre-assembly HJURP/CENP-A complex in vivo, and whose down-regulation leads to the loss of CENP-A and HJURP at centromeres. This study describes a novel function for human centromeric long non-coding RNAs in the recruitment of HJURP and CENP-A, implicating RNA-based chaperone targeting in histone variant assembly.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Delphine Quenet

    Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Yamini Dalal

    Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, United States
    For correspondence
    dalaly@mail.nih.gov
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Ali Shilatifard, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, United States

Version history

  1. Received: May 4, 2014
  2. Accepted: August 11, 2014
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: August 12, 2014 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: August 29, 2014 (version 2)
  5. Version of Record updated: November 1, 2018 (version 3)

Copyright

This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.

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  1. Delphine Quenet
  2. Yamini Dalal
(2014)
A long non-coding RNA is required for targeting centromeric protein A to the human centromere
eLife 3:e03254.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03254

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03254