Centromere Protein T (CENPT)

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.

CENPT is an additional factor required for centromere assembly.Epitope-tagged CENPT 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 CENPT disrupted recruitment of the core complex and caused an increase in the number of cells in mitosis.