Genomic analyses of the
transcription elongation factor Spt5

A representation of part of the transcription elongation complex, generated from an alignment of cryo-EM structures from Vos et al. (2018) and Farnung et al. (2018). Factors shown: DNA (blue), RNA (green), a histone (brown), RNA polymerase II (gray), Spt6 (red), Spt4/5 (orange), PAF complex (yellow).

As a graduate student/postdoc in the Fred Winston lab, I did data science work on a project studying the conserved transcription elongation factor Spt5.

In this project, I analyzed multiomics data collected by a collaborator in the lab from Schizosacchomyces pombe cells that have been depleted of Spt5 protein.

This work appears in chapter 3 of my PhD dissertation, and extends upon results published in Shetty et al. (2017) that showed in vivo transcriptional elongation defects upon Spt5 depletion and a novel role for Spt5 in regulating antisense transcription.

Diagram of the dual-shutoff system used to deplete Spt5 from S. pombe. Spt5 is expressed from a thiamine-repressible promoter, and tagged with an auxin-inducible degron tag for specific degradation upon addition of auxin.