Letter C

Centromere

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The cinched 'waist' of the chromosome essential for the division and the retention of the chromosome in the cell.

The centromere is a uniquely specialized region of the chromosome to which spindle fibers attach during cell division.

The human centromere contains a 3-million-base stretch of DNA embedded in what has been called the centromere and that is all it takes to make a functional centromere.

The nature of this core DNA indicates that, rather than being highly conserved, the centromere has changed significantly during primate evolution.

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