Nitrogen signaling factor changes gene expression and binding of transcription factors [ChIP-seq]
High quality nitrogen sources such as NH4+ and glutamate inhibit the uptake of poor nitrogen sources including amino acids (leucine etc.), which is called “nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR)”. We found a cell-to-cell communication system in fission yeast that inactivates NCR and enables cells to take up leucine even on high NH4+ medium (referred to as adaptive growth). Furthermore, we identified novel oxylipins responsible for the adaptive growth, which are secreted from cells and are referred to as nitrogen signaling factors (NSF). RNA-seq analyses showed that mitochondrial respiratory-related genes are differentially expressed upon addition of synthetic NSF. These results suggest that the cell-to-cell communication via NSF reprograms the metabolic preference from glycolysis to mitochondrial respiration. Moreover, we also performed ChIP-seq of transcription factors  (TFs) and found that bindings of several TFs on DNA are regulated by NSF. Overall design: To investigate global changes in transcription factor occupancy in response to 2h NSF exposure, we performed ChIP-seq of FLAG-tagged transcription factors Adn2, Atf1, Fil1, Hsr1, Php3, and Reb1  in triplicates (108 samples).