Centromere protein B (CENP-B) is one of the major proteins involved in centromere formation, binding to centromeric repetitive DNA by recognizing a 17 bp motif called the CENP-B box. Hominids (humans and great apes) carry large numbers of CENP-B boxes in alpha satellite DNA (AS, the major centromeric repetitive DNA of simian primates). Only negative results have been reported regarding the pres...

The BTB/POZ domain defines a newly characterized protein-protein interaction interface. It is highly conserved throughout metazoan evolution and generally found at the NH2 terminus of either actin-binding or, more commonly, nuclear DNA-binding proteins. By mediating protein binding in large aggregates, the BTB/POZ domain serves to organize higher order macromolecular complexes involved in ring ...

The recently acquired genome sequence of globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus) has been used to catalog the genome's content of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. More than 177,000 perfect SSRs were revealed, equivalent to an overall density across the genome of 244.5 SSRs/Mbp, but some 224,000 imperfect SSRs were also identified. About 21% of these SSRs were complex (two stretc...