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Heterochromatin boundaries are hotspots for de novo kinetochore formation

Nature Cell Biology volume 13, pages 799–808 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

The centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENH3 (also known as CENP-A) is considered to be an epigenetic mark for establishment and propagation of centromere identity. Pulse induction of CENH3 (Drosophila CID) in Schneider S2 cells leads to its incorporation into non-centromeric regions and generates CID islands that resist clearing from chromosome arms for multiple cell generations. We demonstrate that CID islands represent functional ectopic kinetochores, which are non-randomly distributed on the chromosome and show a preferential localization near telomeres and pericentric heterochromatin in transcriptionally silent, intergenic chromatin domains. Although overexpression of heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) or increasing histone acetylation interferes with CID island formation on a global scale, induction of a locally defined region of synthetic heterochromatin by targeting HP1–LacI fusions to stably integrated Lac operator arrays produces a proximal hotspot for CID deposition. These data indicate that the characteristics of regions bordering heterochromatin promote de novo kinetochore assembly and thereby contribute to centromere identity.

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Figure 1: Distinct islands of CID deposition remain after pulse overexpression of CID.
Figure 2: CID islands are functional ectopic kinetochores that can mediate poleward movement of acentric chromosome fragments and self-propagate through multiple rounds of the cell cycle.
Figure 3: Telomeres and pc-het are enriched for CID islands.
Figure 4: CID hotspots cover extended areas of 100–200 kb and correlate with transcriptionally silent, intergenic domains.
Figure 5: The heterochromatin–euchromatin transition zone is a hotspot for ectopic kinetochore formation and correlates with NDC80 binding before CID clearing.
Figure 6: Increased acetylation and high levels of HP1 inhibit whereas reduction of HP1 promotes the formation of CID islands.
Figure 7: Local targeting of HP1–LacI induces a new hotspot for CID-island formation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the following people for antibodies: T. Maresca and E. Salmon, R. Karess, C. Sunkel, S. Heidmann, C. Lehner and G. H. Karpen and R. Tsien for the mRFP construct. We would also like to thank B. Mellone, P. Pasero, B. Duncker and the laboratory members, particularly M-J. Mendiburo and J. Padeken for reagents, discussions and critical reading of the manuscript, and H-J. Schwarz for general assistance. Work in the laboratory of H.M. is funded by grants PTDC/SAU-GMG/099704/2008 and PTDC/SAU-ONC/112917/2009 from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia of Portugal (COMPETE-FEDER), the Human Frontier Research Program and the Seventh Framework Programme grant PRECISE from the European Research Council. Funding for this research project of the laboratory of P.H. was provided by the Max Planck Society, the Human Frontier Science Program (CDA) and by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments (EXC 294).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics, Stübeweg 51, 79108 Freiburg, Germany

    Agata M. Olszak, Dominic van Essen, Sarah Diehl, Thomas Manke, Simona Saccani & Patrick Heun

  2. Department of Experimental Biology, IBMC-Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    António J. Pereira & Helder Maiato

  3. Department of Experimental Biology, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Helder Maiato

  4. BIOSS Centre for Biological Signalling Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Patrick Heun

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  1. Agata M. Olszak
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Contributions

A.M.O. carried out the cytological characterization of CID islands. A.J.P., A.M.O. and H.M. carried out laser-microsurgery experiments. D.v.E. and S.S. conducted the ChIP-seq and qPCR. T.M. and S.D. carried out bioinformatic analysis of ChIP-seq. A.M.O. and P.H. did the project planning and data analysis. P.H. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Patrick Heun.

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Olszak, A., van Essen, D., Pereira, A. et al. Heterochromatin boundaries are hotspots for de novo kinetochore formation. Nat Cell Biol 13, 799–808 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2272

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