Paris Postdoc seminar – Annapaola Angrisani

Annapaola Angrisani (Institut Curie) will present a Paris Postdoc Seminar on the theme:

Understanding Centromere Fragility : Replication Stress and DNA Damage Burden

Abstract:

The centromere is a key chromosomal region required for accurate chromosome segregation. Despite its essential role, the centromere is inherently fragile, exhibiting a high susceptibility to replication stress and DNA damage that contributes to chromosome breakage and aneuploidy. This fragility stems from the repetitive DNA architecture of centromeric sequences and their unique chromatin environment, which distinguish centromere replication dynamics from the rest of the genome.

In the seminar, I will examine how replication stress—common in precancerous and cancer contexts—promotes centromere instability.

Mechanistically, we show that the centromeric replisome operates under finely tuned and unique replication programs supported by specialized DNA replication and repair factors.

I will also discuss the specific DNA lesions to which centromeres are particularly prone, and how these lesions can potentially trigger centromere breakages and recombination events, threating genomic integrity.