Yuan (Daniel) Xu from the University of California, Santa Cruz, spoke about the “Determination of the centromere protein A landscape at single-molecule resolution” during the Nanopore Community Meeting 2022. Their five-minute session was based on their work as a graduate student. They spoke about centromere localization and how CENP-A helps determine the region. The objective of the study was to examine the epigenetic properties of centromeres, including centromere protein density and spacing. The method they used was Dimelo-seq, a system to methylate around the site that is desired. Instead of a micoscopic image, a map is produced. “Dimelo-seq data suggests CENP-A can localize at higher density to multiple places on the same chromatin fiber” was a conclusion Xu shared. They asked: “how do we figure out the CENP-A density?” They are able to Zoom in and infer where modified bases are located. A remaining question is: do all these regions participate in chromosomal segregation and how? This session was dense with a lot of information packed into five minutes. I am impressed with the different techniques used by this research group! Also, I wonder if this approach can be useful for other systems including prokaryotic systems.
