A method for making a transgenic corn plant comprising an artificial plant minichromosome having a functional centromere, the method comprising: (a) contacting at least one corn plant cell with a mixture comprising a recombinant construct, said recombinant construct comprising: (i) a polynucleotide comprising at least one array of tandem repeats of CentC, the array comprising at least 10 copies of CentC and at least one copy of a retrotransposable element selected from CentA, CRM1 and CRM2; and (ii) a DNA fragment comprising an array of at least 30 copies of telomeric repeats; (b) identifying at least one corn plant cell from step (a) comprising an artificial plant minichromosome having a functional centromere; and (c) regenerating a fertile corn plant from the corn plant cell of step (b) wherein said corn plant comprises an artificial plant minichromosome having a functional centromere.La présente invention concerne des minichromosomes de plantes artificielles comportant un centrmère fonctionnel de liaison spécifique à la protéine C centromérique (CENPC) et des procédés de fabrication de tels minichromosomes.