Cohesin Transmission Across Mitosis Ensures Transcription Reestablishment Through Cdk9-mediated Activation of RNA Pol II [CUT&Tag]

Cohesin has been hypothesized to play an important role in controlling gene expression through regulating distant contacts between promoters and gene regulatory elements. However, studies in asynchronous cells have identified very few genes that change expression folowing cohesin depletion.

During mitosis cohesin is removedfrom chromosomes and genome orginization is completely erased. In G1 genome structure and gene expression are re-established from a blank template, presenting a unique opportunity to test the role of cohesin in gene expresison In this work we combined cell cycle synchronization with rapid protein depleiton to test the role of cohesin in gene expresison in G1 cells. We find that cohesin is enriched at a subset of gene promoters and is important for establilshing the presence of actively elongating RNAPII on those genes likely through an interaction with cdk9:CyclinT.