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. 2009 Sep 1;106(35):14937-41.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.0904833106. Epub 2009 Aug 18.

Centromere repositioning in cucurbit species: implication of the genomic impact from centromere activation and inactivation

Yonghua Han  1 , Zhonghua Zhang, Chunxia Liu, Jinhua Liu, Sanwen Huang, Jiming Jiang, Weiwei Jin
Affiliations

Centromere repositioning in cucurbit species: implication of the genomic impact from centromere activation and inactivation

Yonghua Han et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

The centromere of an eukaryotic chromosome can move to a new position during evolution, which may result in a major alteration of the chromosome morphology and karyotype. This centromere repositioning phenomenon has been extensively documented in mammalian species and was implicated to play an important role in mammalian genome evolution. Here we report a centromere repositioning event in plant species. Comparative fluorescence in situ hybridization mapping using common sets of fosmid clones between two pairs of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and melon (Cucumis melo L.) chromosomes revealed changes in centromere positions during evolution. Pachytene chromosome analysis revealed that the current centromeres of all four cucumber and melon chromosomes are associated with distinct pericentromeric heterochromatin. Interestingly, inactivation of a centromere in the original centromeric region was associated with a loss or erosion of its affixed pericentromeric heterochromatin. Thus, both centromere activation and inactivation in cucurbit species were associated with a gain/loss of a large amount of pericentromeric heterochromatin.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Centromeric Satellite DNA repeats cucumber and melon. (A) FISH mapping of the Type III satellite repeat on the somatic metaphase chromosomes of cucumber. (B) FISH mapping of the Type III satellite repeat on the pachytene chromosomes of cucumber. (C) FISH mapping of the CentM satellite repeat on the somatic metaphase chromosomes of melon. (D) FISH mapping of the CentM satellite repeat on the pachytene chromosomes of melon. [Scale bars, 5 μm (A), 10 μm (B–D).]
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Comparative FISH mapping of cucumber chromosome 6 and melon chromosome I. (A) Cucumber chromosomes at the pachytene stage were probed by a set of 12 fosmid clones together with the Type III satellite repeat. (B) Three straightened cucumber pachytene chromosome 6. One of the chromosomes was converted into a black-white image. Distinct heterochromatin is visible in the centromeric region and the distal end of the short arm. (C) Melon chromosomes at the pachytene stage were probed by a set of five fosmid clones together with the CentM satellite repeat. (D) Three straightened melon pachytene chromosome I. One of the chromosomes was converted into a black-white image. Distinct heterochromatin is visible in the centromeric region and the pericentromeric region on the long arm. (Scale bars, 10 μm.)
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Comparative FISH mapping of cucumber chromosome 7 and melon chromosome II. (A) Cucumber chromosomes at the pachytene stage were probed by a set of eight fosmid clones together with the Type III satellite repeat. (B) Three straightened cucumber pachytene chromosome 7. One of the chromosomes was converted into a black-white image. Distinct heterochromatin is visible in the centromeric region and the distal ends of both chromosome arms. (C) Melon chromosomes at the pachytene stage were probed by a set of seven fosmid clones together with the CentM satellite repeat. (D) Three straightened melon pachytene chromosome II. One of the chromosomes was converted into a black-white image. Distinct heterochromatin is visible in the centromeric region and in the region spanned by fosmids 7–2 and 7–3. The red boxes in B and D highlight the heterochromatin domains containing the centromere for the cucumber chromosome but not the melon chromosome. (Scale bars, 10 μm.)
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Diagrammatic illustration of the marker orders and centromere positions of two pairs of cucumber and melon chromosomes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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