Colorado State University

Sarah Swygert

Assistant Professor

Sarah.Swygert@colostate.edu

Office: Molecular Radiological Bioscie 377

Phone: 9704910420

Education:

• Postdoctoral training, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
• Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School
• B.A., Agnes Scott College

Website: https://swygertlab.colostate.edu/

Google Scholar: View Google Scholar Profile

About

The organization of genomes into chromatin controls all DNA-dependent processes. Recently, tremendous effort has been put into understanding how chromatin folds into increasingly large and complex three-dimensional structures. However, attributing biological functions to chromatin structures has been challenging. In my lab, we use a combination of the highest-possible resolution genomics methods and biochemical and biophysical assays to uncover the roles of 3D chromatin structures in cells. As a model, we use budding yeast in a mysterious cell state called quiescence, in which chromatin undergoes dramatic rearrangements and the majority of transcription is silenced. Our results have broad implications for basic regulatory mechanisms as well as specific applications to processes governed by quiescence.

Publications

• “Asymmetric condensin loop extrusion is regulated by RPA-coated single-stranded DNA in quiescent cells” Al-Kurdi, B., Hernandez, J.A., Lewis, A.H., Snyder, L.M., Markus, S.M., Swygert, S.G. biorxiv, 2026 https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.10.737861
• “Local chromatin fiber folding represses transcription and loop extrusion in quiescent cells” Swygert, S.G.,* Lin, D., Portillo-Ledesma, S., Lin, P.Y., Hunt, D.R., Kao, C.F., Schlick, T., Noble, W.S., Tsukiyama, T.* *Corresponding authors eLife 10:e72062, 2021
• “Unraveling quiescence-specific repressive chromatin domains” Swygert, S.G., Tsukiyama, T. Current Genetics 65, 1145-1151, 2019
• “Condensin-dependent chromatin compaction represses transcription globally during quiescence” Swygert, S.G., Kim, S., Wu, X., Fu, T., Hsieh, T.H., Rando, O.J., Eisenman, R.N., Shendure, J., McKnight, J.N., Tsukiyama, T. Molecular Cell 73, 533-546, 2019
• “SIR proteins create compact heterochromatin fibers” Swygert, S.G., Senapati, S., Bolukbasi, M.F., Wolfe, S.A., Lindsay, S., Peterson, C.L Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, 12447-12452, 2018
• “Preparation and analysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae quiescent cells” Spain M.M., Swygert S.G., Tsukiyama T. Lacorazza H. (eds) Cellular Quiescence. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1686. Humana Press, New York, NY , 2018
• “Nucleosome-like, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-histone octamer complexes and the implication for DNA double strand break repair” Adkins, N.L., Swygert, S.G., Kaur, P., Niu, H., Grigoryev, S.A., Sung, P., Wang, H., Peterson, C.L. Journal of Biological Chemistry 292, 5271-5281, 2017
• “Chromatin dynamics: interplay between remodeling enzymes and histone modifications” Swygert, S.G. & Peterson, C.L Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – Gene Regulatory Mechanisms 1839, 728-736, 2014
• “Solution-state conformation and stoichiometry of yeast Sir3 heterochromatin fibres” Swygert, S.G., Manning, B.J., Senapati, S., Kaur, P., Lindsay, S., Demeler, B., Peterson, C.L. Nature Communications 5, 4751, 2014