By ensuring traction of sister chromatids to opposite sides of the cell prior to its division, the complex network of chromosomal proteins described above serves to maintain chromosome numbers during vegetative cell proliferation, during which each round of DNA replication is succeeded by chromosome segregation and vice versa.
Members of the CHD family are involved in conducting a wide array of functions, including ATPase activity to maintain chromosome structure and regulation of heterochromatic elements29, nucleosome mobilization45, transcriptional regulation and elongation46,47,48,49, and development and differentiation31.
High resolution Hi-C studies have also revealed the presence of locally crumpled chromatin regions called "globules" along chromosome arms, and implicated a critical role for pericentromeric heterochromatin in imposing fundamental constraints on the genome to maintain chromosome territoriality and stability.
Mammalian telomeres are composed of G-rich repetitive double-stranded (ds) DNA with a 3' single-stranded (ss) overhang and associated proteins that together maintain chromosome end stability.
This in turn renders oocytes innately susceptible to aneuploidy, which is made worse by an age-related reduction in key SAC regulators and factors that maintain chromosome and spindle structure (Jones and Lane, 2013; Sebestova et al., 2012).
In conclusion, transcriptional repression of a large number of ncRNAs by p53/CEP-1 importantant for its ability to maintain chromosome stability with underlying mechanism and unknown functional consequences of transcriptional repression.
In D. melanogaster, as in any eukaryote, recombination-based mechanisms also help maintain chromosome termini [41].
Examples where transcription did appear to maintain chromosome structure may reflect particularly gene dense chromosomes or chromosome segments [36].
Together, these proteins maintain chromosome condensation and their up-regulation is known to be associated with delayed mitotic exit [8].
In addition to the forces exerted on the kinetochores, it is known that the chromosome arms are associated with motor molecules, which can also generate forces to maintain chromosome mobility [14], [15].
