When an orangutan lost a vital piece of its DNA, its chromosome didn't give up—it literally grew a brand-new 'anchor' from scratch to stay alive.
April 13, 2026
Original Paper
A segmental duplication-mediated deletion leads to neocentromere formation in orangutans
bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.04.09.717302
The Takeaway
This study captures extreme genetic survival in action, showing that the "center" of a chromosome can spontaneously relocate. It reveals that the genome is far more plastic and adaptable than we previously imagined.
From the abstract
Centromeres ensure faithful chromosome segregation, yet how new centromeres arise and replace canonical ones remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate a polymorphic centromere repositioning event on the orangutan chromosome 10 using near-telomere-to-telomere assemblies, epigenetic profiling, and population-scale data. We identify striking heterogeneity in canonical centromeres, ranging from large, higher-order repeat -satellite arrays to short, monomeric -satellite tracts, alongside the em