Elucidating the direct target regulon of NtcA during the early acclimation to nitrogen starvation in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 [ChIP-Seq]. Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photoautotrophs responsible for a substantial proportion of nitrogen fixation and primary production in the hydrosphere. Non-nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria, such as Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, depend of the availability of nitrogenized species to survive. Therefore, an intricate regulatory network around the transcriptional factor NtcA maintains the homeostasis of nitrogen in these organisms. The mechanisms controlling NtcA activity are well understood but a comprehensive study of its regulon is missing in Synechocystis. To define NtcA regulon during the early stage of nitrogen starvation, we have performed chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChiP-seq), in parallel with genome level transcriptome analysis (RNA-seq). By combining both methods we assigned 51 activated and 28 repressed genes directly by NtcA. Most of direct targets included genes involved in nitrogen and carbon metabolism and photosynthesis. NtcA regulon also included 8 ncRNAs, of which ncr0710, Syr6 and NsiR7 were experimentally validated. Intriguingly, we identified several NtcA intragenic binding sites suggesting that NtcA can modulate transcriptional expression by binding along the whole transcript and not only in the promoter region as previously though. Finally, the transcriptional implication of PipX was analyzed in some NtcA-targets genes, revealing that PipX assists NtcA in the global nitrogen regulation in Synechocystis. Overall design: Cells from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 wild type (WT) cultured in ammonium and after 4 h of nitrogen starvation were used to perform chromatin immunoprecipitation with anti-NtcA antibody. Four ChIPs were performed from four independent sets of Synechocystis cells. For each experimental condition, a sample of total DNA (not subjected to immunoprecipitation) was used as a control (Input samples). The immunoprecipitated material was sequenced using Illumina Hiseq 2500.