A role for condensin in mediating transcriptional adaptation to environmental stimuli

Abstract

Nuclear organisation shapes regulation of genes. However, the principles by which three-dimensional genome architecture influences gene transcription are incompletely understood. Condensin is a key architectural chromatin constituent, best known for its role in mitotic chromosome condensation. Yet, at least a subset of condensin is bound to DNA throughout the cell cycle. Studies in various organisms have reported diverse roles for condensin in transcriptional regulation, but no unifying mechanism has emerged. In this thesis, I use rapid conditional condensin depletion in cell cycle-staged budding yeast S. cerevisiae cells to study condensin’s role in transcriptional regulation. I observed a large number of small changes in gene expression, enriched at genes located close to condensin binding sites. Nascent RNA sequencing revealed that transcription is overall slightly elevated following condensin depletion. More strikingly, transcriptional changes in response to environmental stimuli were subdued in the absence of condensin. Most notably, condensin contributes to the global transcriptional downregulation in response to heat shock. My results suggest that condensin facilitates transcriptional reprogramming as part of adaptation to environmental stimuli.

Date of Award	1 May 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	King's College London
Supervisor	Snezhana Oliferenko (Supervisor) & Frank Uhlmann (Supervisor)