Mitotic centromeres organize in repeat-subunits with specialized histone landscape and multi-domain architecture as revealed by expansion microscopy

Mitotic centromeres in human diploid hTERT RPE-1 cells organize into discontinuous, repeating substructures, with CENP-A and KNL1 marking repeat units.

• Why it matters: Centromeres must segregate chromosomes accurately, but their nanoscale protein arrangement and chromatin domain architecture are not fully resolved.
• What they did: Using Ten-fold Robust Expansion Microscopy (TREx), the study visualized mitotic centromeres in hTERT RPE-1 cells and mapped CENP-A, KNL1, RAD21, and CENP-B into four spatial domains.
• The result: The centromere chromatin shows a specialized centrochromatin-like landscape—enriched H3S10ph and H3K9me3, depleted H3K27me3, and low-level H3K4me3 and H3K36me3—supporting a multidomain, repeat-subunit architecture.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.