Sundar Ram Sankaranarayanan

The paper determines the cryo-EM structure of the holocentric CCAN from Bombyx mori, revealing a self-contained dimer that forms a point-centromere-like architecture and incorporates novel Centromeric Subunit proteins.

The paper identifies a monomeric histone-fold domain in insect CENP-T proteins, showing structural rearrangements that replace the need for a CENP-W partner.

The paper identifies a conserved arginine residue in the Dam1 complex subunit Dad2 that is essential for viability in yeast but less so in fungi with regional centromeres, suggesting functional plasticity in chromosome-microtubule coupling.

The paper identifies centromere regions in Malassezia species and shows that centromere loss drives karyotype evolution by causing chromosome breakage and fusion.