A Rapid Method of Genomic Array Analysis of Scaffold/Matrix Attachment Regions (S/MARs) Identifies a 2.5-Mb Region of Enhanced Scaffold/Matrix Attachment at a Human Neocentromere
Abstract
Human neocentromeres are fully functional centromeres that arise at previously noncentromeric regions of the genome. We have tested a rapid procedure of genomic array analysis of chromosome scaffold/matrix attachment regions (S/MARs), involving the isolation of S/MAR DNA and hybridization of this DNA to a genomic BAC/PAC array. Using this procedure, we have defined a 2.5-Mb domain of S/MAR-enriched chromatin that fully encompasses a previously mapped centromere protein-A (CENP-A)-associated domain at a human neocentromere. We have independently verified this procedure using a previously established fluorescence in situ hybridization method on salt-treated metaphase chromosomes. In silico sequence analysis of the S/MAR-enriched and surrounding regions has revealed no outstanding sequence-related predisposition. This study defines the S/MAR-enriched domain of a higher eukaryotic centromere and provides a method that has broad application for the mapping of S/MAR attachment sites over large genomic regions or throughout a genome.
Footnotes
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[Supplemental material is available online at www.genome.org.]
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Article and publication are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.1095903.
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↵1 Corresponding author. E-MAIL choo{at}cryptic.rch.unimelb.edu.au; FAX 61-3-9348-1391.
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- Accepted April 18, 2003.
- Received December 12, 2002.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press