“…An extensive analysis of centromeric satellite DNAs of vertebrates showed the presence of short A-rich motifs, typical characteristics of centromere satellite (Vina˜s et al, 2004). The expanded TAAA motif in the 5SHindIII-DNA is similar to the short A-rich motifs that were previously identified in the centromeric satellite DNAs of different fish species (Wright, 1989;Denovan and Wright, 1990;Garrido-Ramos et al, 1995;Kato, 1999;Canapa et al, 2002;Vin˜as et al, 2004). These short sequences are quite similar showing considerable similarity to other centromeric motifs found in human (Vissel, Nagy and Choo, 1992), mouse (Wong and Rattner, 1988), and reptiles (Cremisi et al, 1988), suggesting that such sequences might play any important role in the structure and function of the H. malabaricus centromere.…”