PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Pavel, Neumann
AU  - Oliveira, Ludmila
AU  - Jang, Tae-Soo
AU  - Novák, Petr
AU  - Koblížková, Andrea
AU  - Schubert, Veit
AU  - Houben, Andreas
AU  - Macas, Jiří
TI  - Disruption of the standard kinetochore in holocentric <em>Cuscuta</em> species
AID  - 10.1101/2023.01.04.522735
DP  - 2023 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2023.01.04.522735
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/04/2023.01.04.522735.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/04/2023.01.04.522735.full
AB  - Segregation of chromosomes depends on the centromere. Most species are monocentric, with the centromere restricted to a single region per chromosome. In some organisms, monocentric organization changed to holocentric, in which the centromere activity is distributed over the entire chromosome length. However, the causes and consequences of this transition are poorly understood. Here, we show that the transition in the genus Cuscuta was associated with dramatic changes in the kinetochore, a protein complex that mediates the attachment of chromosomes to microtubules. We found that in holocentric Cuscuta species the KNL2 genes were lost; the CENP-C, KNL1, and ZWINT1 genes were truncated; the centromeric localization of CENH3, CENP-C, KNL1, MIS12, and NDC80 proteins was disrupted; and the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) was degenerated. Our results demonstrate that holocentric Cuscuta species lost the ability to form a standard kinetochore and do not employ SAC to control the attachment of microtubules to chromosomes.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.