Sequence-structure-function: uncovering how genetic variation at human centromere drives cellular phenotypes

Descripción del proyecto

Exploración del papel de los centrómeros en los fenotipos celulares

Todas las células somáticas tienen la misma información genética, una copia completa del genoma que les permite producir cualquiera de los millones de proteínas codificadas. Las células individuales producen solo una parte de estas según sus funciones. ¿El centrómero podría tener una función al respecto? El centrómero, una región de ADN que une las cromátidas hermanas y se fija al huso durante la división celular, también se encuentra entre el 5 % del ADN humano cuyas secuencias no están completamente descritas. Las secuencias y los tamaños de los centrómeros varían entre tejidos, entre individuos y en enfermedades. El equipo del proyecto CentroFun, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, estudiará la variación genética en los centrómeros humanos y cómo las diferencias de secuencia, estructura y función podrían impulsar los fenotipos celulares.

Objetivo

The last decades have seen an extraordinary leap in our knowledge of the human genome and its role in health and disease. Yet, approximately 5% of our DNA still lacks sequence annotation and has been largely excluded from functional and disease-association studies. These genomic gaps include DNA repeats such as centromeres, which are large tandem arrays of alpha-satellite DNA. Centromeres chromatin is functionally essential for chromosome segregation serving as the basal template for the mitotic kinetochore. A recent breakthrough has been the complete genome assembly, including centromeres, of a haploid cell line derived from fetoplacental growth of a molar pregnancy. However, centromeres sequence and size vary across tissues, between individuals and in disease states. The main challenges are to understand how is centromere variation generated and especially, the consequences at a functional level. The specific objectives of my project are: (1) Identify the mutagenic processes and DNA repair responses operating at centromeres; (2) Determine the impact of centromeres sequence variation on chromatin structure, kinetochore function and chromosome behavior; and (3) Understand how these changes contribute to genome instability, cellular phenotypes and disease predisposition. The originality of this project is to follow a multidisciplinary approach that combines experimental studies spanning structural biochemistry to cell biology and bioinformatic analyses, that will benefit from the information on centromere reference already available and soon to be generated. The proposed research therefore represents a very appropriate and timely contribution to provide an integrated view of human centromere variation and its role in determining phenotypic traits. Furthermore, it will provide important insight on the functional role of the missing genome in human diseases and promises to yield key information and tools for expanding this novel field.