Kerry Bloom’s lab investigates how centromeres, the crucial chromosomal regions for segregation, respond to mechanical stress during cell division.
Recent publication from the lab was included in the March 2025 issue of Current Biology. Using assays involving supercoiling on plasmids and tension on dicentric chromosomes, Kolbin and colleagues find that centromeres are sensitized to breaks in an enzymatic manner in response to mechanical stress. Mechanical stress at the centromere can cause DNA to unwind, making it prone to cleavage by the single-strand endonuclease Rad1. This process suggests a mechanism for centromeric DNA to relieve excessive tension through DNA breakage and repair, and additinally provides insights into centromere fragility and the evolution of adjacent DNA regions.
Kolbin D, Locatelli M, Stanton J, Kesselman K, Kokkanti A, Li J, et al. Centromeres are stress-induced fragile sites. Current Biology. 2025 Mar 24;35(6):1197-1210.e4. doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.055 “