The interplay between genome organization and nuclear architecture of primate evolutionary neo-centromeres.

An Evolutionary Neo-Centromere (ENC) is a centromere that emerged in an ectopic region of a chromosome during evolution. It is thought that the old centromere must be inactivated because dicentric chromosomes are not viable. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether 3D arrangement in the interphase nucleus of the novel and old centromeric domains was affected by the repositioning event. The data we present here strongly indicate that the ENC phenomenon does not affect the 3D location of either novel or old centromeres. Very likely, other features, such as gene density, rather than the newly acquired or lost functions, define positioning in the nucleus.