{"doi":"10.1101/2020.12.28.424576","title":"The N-terminal Tail of <i>C. elegans</i> CENP-A Interacts with KNL-2 and is Essential for Centromeric Chromatin Assembly","abstract":"ABSTRACT Centromeres are epigenetically defined by the presence of the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENP-A. A specialized loading machinery, including the histone chaperone HJURP/Scm3, participates in CENP-A nucleosome assembly. However, Scm3/HJURP is missing from multiple lineages, including nematodes, which rely on a CENP-A-dependent centromere. Here, we show that the extended N-terminal tail of C. elegans CENP-A contains a predicted structured region that is essential for centromeric chromatin assembly. Removal of this region of the CENP-A N-Tail prevents loading, resulting in failure of kinetochore assembly and defective chromosome condensation. By contrast, the N-Tail mutant CENP-A localizes normally in the presence of endogenous CENP-A. The portion of the N-Tail containing the predicted structured region binds to KNL-2, a conserved SANTA and Myb domain-containing protein (referred to as M18BP1 in vertebrates), that is specifically involved in CENP-A chromatin assembly. This direct interaction is conserved in the related nematode C. briggsae, despite divergence of the N-Tail and KNL-2 primary sequences. Thus, the extended N-Tail of CENP-A is essential for CENP-A chromatin assembly in C. elegans and partially substitutes for the function of Scm3/HJURP, in that it mediates an interaction of the specialized histone fold of CENP-A with KNL-2. These results highlight an evolutionary variation on centromeric chromatin assembly in the absence of a dedicated CENP-A-specific chaperone/targeting factor of the Scm3/HJURP family.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2020,"id":131988,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9586,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":542349,"name":"Jack Houston","orcid":"0009-0009-6036-5101","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":442154,"name":"Bethany Davis","orcid":"0000-0001-9477-0847","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":587440,"name":"Adina Gerson‐Gurwitz","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":587441,"name":"Joost Monen","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":256455,"name":"Karen Oegema","orcid":"0000-0001-8515-7514","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":239987,"name":"Andrew K. Shiau","orcid":"0000-0002-3993-4842","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":256454,"name":"Arshad Desai","orcid":"0000-0002-5410-1830","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":587439,"name":"Christian de Groot","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":52,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:16:07.542484Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}