Reconstitution of a 26-Subunit Human Kinetochore Reveals Cooperative Microtubule Binding by CENP-OPQUR and NDC80

Pesenti ME, Prumbaum D, Auckland P, Smith CM, Faesen AC, Petrovic A, Erent M, Maffini S, Pentakota S, Weir JR, Lin YC, Raunser S, McAinsh AD, Musacchio A (2018). Mol Cell doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.07.038. 

Kinetochores mediate chromosome attachment to the mitotic spindle. In a biochemical tour-de-force the groups of Andrea Musacchio and Stefan Raunser reconstituted a 26-subunit kinetochore particle and characterized its structural organization. The CENP-Q subunit was shown to increase the microtubulebinding affinity of kinetochores, revealing that the kinetochore-spindle interaction is more complex than hitherto believed.