A novel repetitive sequence of sugar cane, SCEN family, locating on centromeric regions

Tandem repetitive sequences consisting of 140-bp repetitive units were cloned from sugar cane genomic DNA and designated the SCEN family. In situ hybridization revealed that they were located on the centromeric region of almost all of the chromosomes of sugar cane. The 140-bp sequence included three CENP-B box-like sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of the members of the SCEN family revealed that the sequences had 75% homology with each other, on average, and that the sequences could not be further classified into smaller subfamilies. The copy number of the sequence was estimated to be 2.6 x 10⁵ per haploid sugar cane genome and, therefore, 4.6 x 10³ or 630 kb per chromosome on average.