Cover image

A graphic display of the structure of a Drosophila minichromosome centromere is shown superimposed on an immunofluorescence image of a cell in metaphase. Green is tubulin, blue is DNA, and red is the centromere-specific histone H3-like protein CENP-A (CID in Drosophila). The minichromosome centromere contains simple satellites (purple and orange), single intact transposons (grey), and an "island of complex DNA" (bottom) composed of transposon fragments and a dispersed, complex repeat. (Mitosis photograph provided with permission by Dr. Michael D. Blower. Graphics by Dr. Gary Karpen. [For details, see Sun et al., pp.182–194.])