centromere

American  

[sen-truh-meer] / ˈsɛn trəˌmɪər /

noun

Cell Biology.

1. a specialized structure on the chromosome, appearing during cell division as the constricted central region where the two chromatids are held together and form an X shape.

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centromere British  

/ ˌsɛntrəˈmɛrɪk, ˈsɛntrəˌmɪə, -ˈmɪərɪk /

noun

1. the dense nonstaining region of a chromosome that attaches it to the spindle during mitosis

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centromere Scientific  

/ sĕn′trə-mîr′ /

1. The region of the chromosome to which the spindle fiber is attached during cell division (both mitosis and meiosis). The centromere is the constricted point at which the two chromatids forming the chromosome are joined together.

2. See more at meiosis mitosis

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Other Word Forms

• centromeric adjective

Etymology

Origin of centromere

First recorded in 1920–25; centro- + -mere

Compare meaning

How does centromere compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• centrosome vs. centromere

Example Sentences

The resulting identical pairs of chromosomes, the sister chromatids, are held together by a structure called the centromere.

From Science Daily

In sequencing each centromere, they learned the duplicated regions vary greatly in size, unexpected because these knobs serve the same purpose in each chromosome.

From Science Magazine

The centromere region contains thousands of repeated segments of DNA.

From New York Times

In S. cerevisiae, each chromosome must have protective structures known as telomeres at both ends, as well as a single structure called a centromere that is essential for normal chromosome segregation during cell division.

From Nature

The unassigned scaffolds contained more complete elements compared to truncated elements than the pseudomolecules, which suggests that unassigned scaffolds are enriched for centromere core sequences.

From Nature