A key element for defining the centromere identity is the incorporation of a 
specific histone H3, CENPA, known as Cnp1p in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. 
Previous studies have suggested that functional S. pombe centromeres lack 
regularly positioned nucleosomes and may involve chromatin remodeling as a key 
step of kinetochore assembly. We used tiling microarrays to show that 
nucleosomes are, in fact, positioned in regular intervals in the core of 
centromere 2, providing the first high-resolution map of regional centromere 
chromatin. Nucleosome locations are not disrupted by mutations in kinetochore 
protein genes cnp1, mis18, mis12, nuf2, mal2; overexpression of cnp1; or the 
deletion of ams2, which encodes a GATA-like factor participating in CENPA 
incorporation. Bioinformatics analysis of the centromere sequence indicates 
certain enriched motifs in linker regions between nucleosomes and reveals a 
sequence bias in nucleosome positioning. In addition, sequence analysis of 
nucleosome-free regions identifies novel binding sites of Ams2p. We conclude 
that centromeric nucleosome positions are stable and may be derived from the 
underlying DNA sequence.