Long-read Data Revealed Structural Diversity in Human Centromere Sequences

Abstract

Centromeres invariably serve as the loci of kinetochore assembly in all eukaryotic cells, but their underlying DNA sequences evolve rapidly. Human centromeres are characterized by their extremely repetitive structures, i.e., higher-order repeats, rendering the region one of the most difficult parts of the genome to assess. Consequently, our understanding of centromere sequence variations across human populations is limited. Here, we analyzed chromosomes 11, 17, and X using long sequencing reads of two European and two Asian genomes, and our results show that human centromere sequences exhibit substantial structural diversity, harboring many novel variant higher-order repeats specific to individuals, while frequent single-nucleotide variants are largely conserved. Our findings add another dimension to our knowledge of centromeres, challenging the notion of stable human centromeres. The discovery of such diversity prompts further deep sequencing of human populations to understand the true nature of sequence evolution in human centromeres.