Helicase LSH/Hells regulates kinetochore function, histone H3/Thr3 phosphorylation and centromere transcription during oocyte meiosis

Centromeres are epigenetically determined nuclear domains strictly required for chromosome segregation and genome stability. However, the mechanisms regulating centromere and kinetochore chromatin modifications are not known. Here, we demonstrate that LSH is enriched at meiotic kinetochores and its targeted deletion induces centromere instability and abnormal chromosome segregation. Superresolution chromatin analysis resolves LSH at the inner centromere and kinetochores during oocyte meiosis. LSH knockout pachytene oocytes exhibit reduced HDAC2 and DNMT-1. Notably, mutant oocytes show a striking increase in histone H3 phosphorylation at threonine 3 (H3T3ph) and accumulation of major satellite transcripts in both prophase-I and metaphase-I chromosomes. Moreover, knockout oocytes exhibit centromere fusions, ectopic kinetochore formation and abnormal exchange of chromatin fibers between paired bivalents and asynapsed chromosomes. Our results indicate that loss of LSH affects the levels and chromosomal localization of H3T3ph and provide evidence that, by maintaining transcriptionally repressive heterochromatin, LSH may be essential to prevent deleterious meiotic recombination events at repetitive centromeric sequences.