Investigating the role of Paf1 in transcription by RNA polymerase I

Polymerase-associated factor 1 complex (Paf1C) has been identified to promote transcription by Pols I and II and is conserved across eukaryotes. This transcription factor has been well-studied for Pol II, but its role in transcription by Pol I has not been fully characterized. Therefore, the goal of this study was to use a high-resolution technique, native elongating transcript sequencing (NET-seq), to investigate the effect of the loss of two of the five Paf1C subunits (Paf1 and Cdc73) on Pol I occupancy in yeast. Most notably, we found that in both paf1D and cdc73D mutants, there was a significant reduction in Pol I occupancy at the 5’ end of the rDNA template as compared to WT yeast. Overall, our results suggest that Paf1C is an important transcription elongation factor for Pol I. NET-seq libraries were prepared for two replicates each of WT, cdc73△, and paf1△ yeast.