Abstract
Centromeres are universally conserved functional units in eukaryotic linear chromosomes. However, little is known about the structure and dynamics of the centromere in lower eukaryotic plant cells. Previously, our group reported that dynamic centromere reconstitution during the cell cycle in a primitive red alga, Cyanidioschyzon merolae, using anti-CENP-A antibody (Maruyama et al., 2007). In this work, we determined centromere regions of all chromosomes in C. merolae by ChIP-on-Chip method using anti-CENP-A antibody and whole-genome tiling array with high probe density. Averaged length of centromere regions was estimated about 2 kbp suggesting that the centromere of C. merolae is categorized into regional type centromere, although they did not have any highly repeating DNA sequences which are found in several higher eukaryotic species.
