A new histone at the centromere?

The centromere is a classic system to study epigenetic specification, and most research has focused on a specialized histone variant, CENP-A, that is required for kinetochore assembly. Now Nishino et al. reveal a new level of complexity for centromeric chromatin, by showing that the kinetochore complex CENP-T-W-S-X shares structural and functional properties with canonical histones.