Multimodal control of transcription factor Pap1 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe under nitrosative stress

Schizosaccharomyces pombe Pap1, a bZIP transcription factor, is highly homologous to the mammalian c-Jun protein that belongs to the AP1 family of transcriptional regulators. The role of transcription factor Pap1 has been extensively studied under oxidative stress. Two cysteine residues in Pap1p namely, C278 and C501 form disulfide linkage under oxidative stress resulting in nuclear accumulation. We first time showed the involvement of Pap1 in the protection against nitrosative stress. In the present study we show that pap1 deletion makes growth of S. pombe sensitive to nitrosative stress. pap1 deletion also causes delayed recovery in terms of mitotic index under nitrosative stress. Our flow cytometry data shows that pap1 deletion causes slower recovery from the slowdown of DNA replication under nitrosative stress. This is the first report where we show that Pap1 transcription factor is localized in the nucleus under nitrosative stress. From our study it is evident that nuclear localization of Pap1 under nitrosative stress was not due to reactive oxygen species formation.