PRESTO of JST, National Institute of Genetics and The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-8540, Japan.
CENP-H is a constitutive centromere component that localizes to the centromere throughout the cell cycle. Because CENP-H is colocalized with CENP-A and CENP-C, it is thought to be an inner centromere protein. We previously generated a conditional loss-of-function mutant of CENP-H and showed that CENP-H is required for targeting of CENP-C to the centromere in chicken DT40 cells. In the present study, we used this mutant to identify the functional region of chicken CENP-H necessary for centromere targeting and cell viability. This region was found by yeast two-hybrid analysis to interact with Hec1, which is a member of the Nuf2 complex that transiently localizes to the centromere during mitosis. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments revealed that CENP-H interacts with the Nuf2 complex in chicken DT40 cells. Photobleaching experiments showed that both Hec1 and CENP-H form stable associations with the centromeres during mitosis, suggesting that Hec1 acts as a structural component of centromeres during mitosis. On the basis of these results and previously published data, we propose that the Nuf2 complex functions as a connector between the inner and outer kinetochores.