Alpha-satellite RNA transcripts are repressed by centromere–nucleolus associations
Name
elife-59770-v2.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
3.11 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
01f698b9a807bc1b0f8fec2494fc91c0
Author(s)
Bury, Leah
Moodie, Brittania
Ly, Jimmy
McKay, Liliana S
Miga, Karen HH
Cheeseman, Iain M
Date Issued
2020
Journal
eLife
Publisher
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© Bury et al. Although originally thought to be silent chromosomal regions, centromeres are instead actively transcribed. However, the behavior and contributions of centromere-derived RNAs have remained unclear. Here, we used single-molecule fluorescence in-situ hybridization (smFISH) to detect alpha-satellite RNA transcripts in intact human cells. We find that alpha-satellite RNA-smFISH foci levels vary across cell lines and over the cell cycle, but do not remain associated with centromeres, displaying localization consistent with other long non-coding RNAs. Alpha-satellite expression occurs through RNA polymerase II-dependent transcription, but does not require established centromere or cell division components. Instead, our work implicates centromere– nucleolar interactions as repressing alpha-satellite expression. The fraction of nucleolar-localized centromeres inversely correlates with alpha-satellite transcripts levels across cell lines and transcript levels increase substantially when the nucleolus is disrupted. The control of alpha-satellite transcripts by centromere-nucleolar contacts provides a mechanism to modulate centromere transcription and chromatin dynamics across diverse cell states and conditions.
MIT Department
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59770
