During cell division, spindle fibers attach to chromosomes at centromeres. The DNA sequence at regional centromeres is fast evolving with no conserved genetic signature for centromere identity. Instead CENH3, a centromere-specific histone H3 variant, is the epigenetic signature that specifies centromere location across both plant and animal kingdoms. Paradoxically, CENH3 is also adaptively evolving. An ongoing question is whether CENH3 evolution is driven by a functional relationship with the underlying DNA sequence. Here, we demonstrate that despite extensive protein sequence divergence, CENH3 histones from distant species assemble centromeres on the same underlying DNA sequence. We first characterized the organization and diversity of centromere repeats in wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana We show that A. thaliana CENH3-containing nucleosomes exhibit a strong preference for a unique subset of centromeric repeats. These sequences are largely missing from the genome assemblies and represent the youngest and most homogeneous class of repeats. Next, we tested the evolutionary specificity of this interaction in a background in which the native A. thaliana CENH3 is replaced with CENH3s from distant species. Strikingly, we find that CENH3 from Lepidium oleraceum and Zea mays, although specifying epigenetically weaker centromeres that result in genome elimination upon outcrossing, show a binding pattern on A. thaliana centromere repeats that is indistinguishable from the native CENH3. Our results demonstrate positional stability of a highly diverged CENH3 on independently evolved repeats, suggesting that the sequence specificity of centromeres is determined by a mechanism independent of CENH3.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is a cereal grass mainly used as animal fodder and raw material for the malting industry. The map-based reference genome sequence of barley cv. 'Morex' was constructed by the International Barley Genome Sequencing Consortium (IBSC) using hierarchical shotgun sequencing. Here, we report the experimental and computational procedures to (i) sequence and assemble more than 80,000 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones along the minimum tiling path of a genome-wide physical map, (ii) find and validate overlaps between adjacent BACs, (iii) construct 4,265 non-redundant sequence scaffolds representing clusters of overlapping BACs, and (iv) order and orient these BAC clusters along the seven barley chromosomes using positional information provided by dense genetic maps, an optical map and chromosome conformation capture sequencing (Hi-C). Integrative access to these sequence and mapping resources is provided by the barley genome explorer (BARLEX).

Cereal grasses of the Triticeae tribe have been the major food source in temperate regions since the dawn of agriculture. Their large genomes are characterized by a high content of repetitive elements and large pericentromeric regions that are virtually devoid of meiotic recombination. Here we present a high-quality reference genome assembly for barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). We use chromosome conformation capture mapping to derive the linear order of sequences across the pericentromeric space and to investigate the spatial organization of chromatin in the nucleus at megabase resolution. The composition of genes and repetitive elements differs between distal and proximal regions. Gene family analyses reveal lineage-specific duplications of genes involved in the transport of nutrients to developing seeds and the mobilization of carbohydrates in grains. We demonstrate the importance of the barley reference sequence for breeding by inspecting the genomic partitioning of sequence variation in modern elite germplasm, highlighting regions vulnerable to genetic erosion.