Systematic analyses of DNA replication machinery components in human cells reveal a requirement of MCM-dependent de novo loading or mobilization of cohesin at replication forks in establishing sister-chromatid cohesion.

E3 ubiquitin ligase Bre1-induced H2B monoubiquitination is epigenetically important for recruiting replication factor Mcm10 and cohesion establishment factors Ctf4, Ctf18 and Eco1 to early replication origins to establish sister chromatid cohesion.

Sister chromatid cohesion is established during replication by two independent pathways operating in parallel, one converts chromosomal cohesin into cohesive structures while the other loads cohesin onto nascent DNAs.

Meiosis-specific cohesin complexes differing in their kleisin subunit display different chromosome binding dynamics and perform specialised functions in sister chromatid cohesion, chromosome axis organisation, and double-strand break repair.

Mechanisms that tether and release replicated sister chromatids to produce sperm and eggs rely extensively on meiotic cohesin complexes that are endowed with unexpectedly different properties specified by a single interchangeable subunit, the α-kleisin.

Cohesin loading at centromeres depends on a conserved surface cluster of amino-acid residues on the cohesin loading protein, Scc4.

Meiotic recombination and chromosome segregation require the establishment of chromatin boundaries by the acetyltransferase Eco1, which anchors both chromatin loops and cohesion.

By specifically antagonizing binding of complexes carrying COH-3/4 kleisins, WAPL-1 regulates chromosome structure and cohesion throughout meiotic prophase.

First evidence of cohesin folding occurring in vivo and during cohesion together with a detailed description of the structural aspects of cohesin's elbow folding through a series of novel structures.

A critical second step in DNA tethering by cohesin occurs after its stable binding to DNA, and this second step is modulated by the Smc3 ATPase active site in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.