Centromere and kinetochore proteins in yeasts and human

The following tables list the proteins involved in centromeric chromatin and kinetochore assembly in budding yeast, fissing yeast, and human. Proteins that appear on the same line are deemed to be orthologs.

This page is intended to serve as a quick reference only. For more information, refer to the appropriate litterature and data banks (each protein name below is a link to the corresponding entry in UniProt).

Centromeric Proteins

The Constitutive Centromere-Associated Network (CCAN) is a complex of proteins permanently associated with centromeric chromatin. It is also known as the “Ctf19p complex” in S. cerevisiae and the “Sim4 complex” in S. pombe. This table and the next one are mostly taken from Przewloka & Glover, 2009.

Beside the CCAN, other proteins are associated with the centromeric chromatin (notably the centromeric histone H3 variant, listed first in the table below).

Kinetochore Proteins

The KMN (Knl1–Mis12–Ndc80) network is believed to be the core module of the kinetochore. It is made of three complexes conserved from yeasts to primates (Welburn & Cheeseman, 2008; Santaguida & Musacchio, 2009).

CenH3 Loading Pathways

The following proteins are not necessarily associated with centromeres and kinetochores but are involved in the loading of centromeric histone CenH3/CENP-A into the centromeric chromatin (Mellone et al., 2009).

Spindle Checkpoint Proteins

The Chromosome Passengers Complex (CPC) is a protein complex transiently localized in centromeres in metaphase, where it is involved in the correction of mis-attached kinetochores (Ruchaud et al., 2007).

1. ↑ Aka CenH3 in all species (Centromeric H3)
2. ↑ Mizuguchi et al., 2007
3. ↑ Pidoux et al., 2009

6 December 2011