Centromere Protein N (CENPN)

The centromere is a specialized chromatin domain, present throughout the cell cycle, that acts as a platform on which the transient assembly of the kinetochore occurs during mitosis. All active centromeres are characterized by the presence of long arrays of nucleosomes in which CENPA replaces histone H3. CENPN is an additional factor required for centromere assembly.Epitope-tagged CENPN bound to centromeres throughout interphase and during mitosis. CENPM, CENPN, CENPT, and CENPU (MLF1IP), together with CENPC and CENPH , bound CENPA in a nucleosome-associated complex. Small interference RNA (siRNA)-mediated depletion of CENPN disrupted recruitment of the core complex, caused the loss of CENPM from centromeres, and increased the number of cells in mitosis.