Elisa Magnani

TL;DR: The analysis reveals an evolutionarily new centromere on equine chromosome 11 that displays properties of an immature but fully functioning Centromere and is devoid of centromeric satellite sequence, suggesting thatCentromeric function may arise before satellite repeat accumulation.

TL;DR: The findings suggest that in some species the CR phenomenon could have played an important role in karyotype shaping, with potential consequences on population dynamics and speciation.

TL;DR: The phylogenetic reconstruction ofcentromere repositioning events demonstrates that the acquisition of satellite DNA occurs after the formation of the centromere during evolution and that centromeres can function over millions of years and many generations without detectable satellite DNA.

TL;DR: New cellular systems to specifically analyze sequence modifications occurring at the repair site of the NHEJ pathway showed that deletions were the most frequent modifications, being present in more than 80% of the junctions.

TL;DR: It is shown that hTERT expression is not sufficient to immortalize primary fibroblasts from three equid species, namely donkey, Burchelli's zebra and Grevy’s zebra, and the immortalization procedure described herein could be extended to primary cells from other mammals.