Conservation of CENH3 Interaction Partners in Plants

Abstract The loading and maintenance of centromeric histone 3 (CENH3) at the centromere are critical processes ensuring appropriate kinetochore establishment and equivalent segregation of the homologous chromosomes during cell division. CENH3 loss of function is lethal whereas mutations in the histone fold domain are tolerated and lead to chromosome instability and chromosome elimination in embryos derived from crosses with wild type pollen. A wide range of proteins in yeast and animals has been reported to interact with CENH3. The histone fold domain interacting proteins are potentially alternative targets for the engineering of haploid inducer lines, which may be important when CENH3 mutations are not well supported by a given crop. Here, we provide an overview of the corresponding plant orthologs or functional analogs of CENH3 interacting proteins. We also list putative CENH3 phosphorylation and ubiquitination posttranslational modifications that are also candidate targets for modulating chromosome stability and inheritance.