浙江大学吴东亚团队研究出水稻着丝粒的遗传多样性和进化。2025年10月21日出版的《自然—遗传学》杂志发表了这项成果。

在这里，该研究团队从Oryza AA组中收集了67个水稻基因组，并分析了800个几乎完整的着丝粒。通过对着丝粒卫星CEN155序列的从头注释，采用渐进式压缩策略，量化了水稻卫星阵列的局部均匀化和多层结构。他们的研究结果表明，水稻着丝粒的遗传创新主要源于结构变异和亲中心的反转录转座子插入。水稻着丝粒中的单碱基取代率似乎比染色体臂中的低。对CEN155阵列、反转录转座子和功能性着丝粒的比较突出了它们动态但相关的相互作用。与KARMA模型的拟南芥着丝粒进化相反，课题组研究人员提出了一种假设，即反转录转座子入侵可能导致祖着丝粒卫星阵列的减少，并促进着丝粒重新定位，这一假设得到了扩展的CENH3染色质免疫沉淀测序富集，超出了原生卫星阵列。

据悉，理解着丝粒动力学的驱动力对于破译真核生物进化和物种形成的复杂性至关重要。

附：英文原文

Title: Genetic diversity and evolution of rice centromeres

Author: Xie, Lingjuan, Huang, Yujie, Huang, Wei, Shang, Lianguang, Sun, Yanqing, Chen, Quanyu, Bi, Shuangtian, Suo, Mingyu, Zhang, Shiyu, Yang, Chentao, Zheng, Xiaoming, Jin, Weiwei, Qian, Qian, Fan, Longjiang, Wu, Dongya

Issue&Volume: 2025-10-21

Abstract: Understanding the driving force of centromere dynamics is crucial for deciphering the complexity of eukaryotic evolution and speciation. Here we assembled 67 rice genomes from the Oryza AA group and analyzed >800 nearly complete centromeres. Through de novo annotation of centromeric satellite CEN155 sequences and employing a progressive compression strategy, we quantified the local homogenization and multilayer structures of rice satellite arrays. Our results indicate that genetic innovations in rice centromeres primarily arise from structural variations and centrophilic retrotransposon insertions. The single-base substitution rate in rice centromeres appears to be lower relative to that in chromosome arms. Comparisons of CEN155 arrays, retrotransposons and functional centromeres highlight their dynamic but correlated interplay. Contrary to the KARMA model for Arabidopsis centromere evolution, we propose a hypothesis that retrotransposon invasion probably contributes to the decline of progenitor centromeric satellite arrays and promotes centromere repositioning, as evidenced by extended CENH3 chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing enrichment beyond the native satellite arrays.

DOI: 10.1038/s41588-025-02365-1

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02365-1