Description
Product Characteristics: A replicated chromosome includes two kinetochores that control chromosome segregation during mitosis. The Centromere Protein-A, CENP-A, is a Histone H3-like protein that contains a C-terminal H3-like domain, which is required for centromere localization of CENP-A, and an antigenic N-terminal domain. CENP-A, originally isolated from HeLa cells, is essential for kinetochore targeting of CENP-C. In the presence of DNA CENP-A forms an octa-meric complex with histones H4, H2A, H2B. CENP-A specifically localizes to active centromeres and is a component of specialized centromeric nucleosomes, on which kinetochores are assembled. CENP-A is essential for nucleosomal packaging of centromeric DNA at interphase and functions as a centromere formation marker on the chromosome.
Target Information: Centromeres are the differentiated chromosomal domains that specify the mitotic behavior of chromosomes. CENPA encodes a centromere protein which contains a histone H3 related histone fold domain that is required for targeting to the centromere. CENPA is proposed to be a component of a modified nucleosome or nucleosome-like structure in which it replaces 1 or both copies of conventional histone H3 in the (H3-H4)2 tetrameric core of the nucleosome particle. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]