Transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II is regulated by an array of protein complexes. Among various elongation factors, Spt5 is conserved in the three kingdoms of life. I investigated functional interactions of its C-terminal repeats (CTR) domain with several elongation protein complexes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. By using genetics and molecular biology methods, I established two major pathways in this thesis. The first describes how BUR kinase-mediated phosphorylation of CTR domain leads to co-transcriptional recruitment of the PAF complex to regulate histone modifications on active genes. The second describes how CTR phosphorylation facilitates recruitment of capping enzymes to enhance gene splicing. Finally, several Spt5-associated protein complexes were studied, and potential molecular mechanisms underlying these observations are proposed and discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/65568 |
| Date | 26 June 2014 |
| Creators | Kuo, Wei Hung William |
| Contributors | Greenblatt, Jack |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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