Role of DNA methylation and non-coding RNA in human centromere function

染色体是一组卷曲的DNA链，包含许多基因。每个人类细胞都有23对染色体，它们共同组成了基因组。任何这些染色体的获得和丢失都将导致严重的医学问题，包括出生缺陷和癌症发展。因此，了解这些染色体在细胞分裂过程中从亲本细胞到两个新细胞的确切传递机制，以及信息如何从一个细胞世代复制到另一个细胞世代，是一个重要的研究领域，然而，关于这些机制还有很多东西要学。我们的实验室是第一个发现染色体的一个关键组成部分，它参与细胞分裂过程的调节，确保染色体的准确分离。这种结构被称为新着丝粒，是研究染色体分离重要方面的理想模型系统。本项目建议详细研究这种新着丝粒的性质。研究结果将有助于我们了解细胞和染色体分裂的基本过程，这最终将直接影响我们对影响人类健康的一些最常见临床疾病的原因的理解。

A chromosome is a grouping of coiled strands of DNA, containing many genes. Every human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes, which together comprise the genome. Both gain and loss of any of these chromosomes will lead to severe medical problems including birth defects and cancer development. Thus, the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the exact passage of these chromosomes from a parental cell to two new cells during cell division, and how the information is copied from from one cell generation to another, is an important area of research, however, much remains to be learnt about the mechanisms. Our laboratory was the first to discover a key component of the chromosome that is involved in the regulation of the cell division process, ensuring the accurate segregation of chromosomes. This structure, known as a neocentromere, is an ideal model system to study important aspects of chromosome segregation. The present project proposes to study the properties of this neocentromere in detail. The outcome will contribute to our knowledge on the processes underlying cell and chromosome division, which will ultimately have a direct impact on our understanding of the causes for some of the most common clinical conditions that affect human health.