{"title":"The time is ripe to investigate human centromeres by long-read sequencing†.","authors":"Yuta Suzuki, Shinichi Morishita","doi":"10.1093/dnares/dsab021","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The complete sequencing of human centromeres, which are filled with highly repetitive elements, has long been challenging. In human centromeres, α-satellite monomers of about 171 bp in length are the basic repeating units, but α-satellite monomers constitute the higher-order repeat (HOR) units, and thousands of copies of highly homologous HOR units form large arrays, which have hampered sequence assembly of human centromeres. Because most HOR unit occurrences are covered by long reads of about 10 kb, the recent availability of much longer reads is expected to enable observation of individual HOR occurrences in terms of their single-nucleotide or structural variants. The time has come to examine the complete sequence of human centromeres.</p>","PeriodicalId":51014,"journal":{"name":"DNA Research","volume":"28 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2021-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8502840/pdf/","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"DNA Research","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/dnares/dsab021","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GENETICS & HEREDITY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
The complete sequencing of human centromeres, which are filled with highly repetitive elements, has long been challenging. In human centromeres, α-satellite monomers of about 171 bp in length are the basic repeating units, but α-satellite monomers constitute the higher-order repeat (HOR) units, and thousands of copies of highly homologous HOR units form large arrays, which have hampered sequence assembly of human centromeres. Because most HOR unit occurrences are covered by long reads of about 10 kb, the recent availability of much longer reads is expected to enable observation of individual HOR occurrences in terms of their single-nucleotide or structural variants. The time has come to examine the complete sequence of human centromeres.
期刊介绍:
DNA Research is an internationally peer-reviewed journal which aims at publishing papers of highest quality in broad aspects of DNA and genome-related research. Emphasis will be made on the following subjects: 1) Sequencing and characterization of genomes/important genomic regions, 2) Comprehensive analysis of the functions of genes, gene families and genomes, 3) Techniques and equipments useful for structural and functional analysis of genes, gene families and genomes, 4) Computer algorithms and/or their applications relevant to structural and functional analysis of genes and genomes. The journal also welcomes novel findings in other scientific disciplines related to genomes.