Targeted DamID reveals differential binding of mammalian pluripotency factors

The precise control of gene expression by transcription factor networks is critical to organismal development. The predominant approach for mapping transcription factor-chromatin interactions has been chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). However, ChIP requires a large number of homogeneous cells and antisera with high specificity. A second approach, DamID, has the drawback that high levels of Dam methylase are toxic. Here we modify our Targeted DamID approach (TaDa) to enable cell type-specific expression in mammalian systems, generating an inducible system (mammalian TaDa or MaTaDa) to identify protein/DNA interactions in 100 to 1000 times fewer cells than ChIP. We mapped the binding sites of key pluripotency factors, OCT4 and PRDM14, in mouse embryonic stem cells, epiblast-like cells and primordial germ cell-like cells (PGCLCs). PGCLCs are an important system to elucidate primordial germ cell development in mice. We monitored PRDM14 binding during the specification of PGCLCs, identifying direct targets of PRDM14 that are key to understanding its critical role in PGCLC development. We show that MaTaDa is a sensitive and accurate method to assess cell type specific transcription factor binding in limited numbers of cells.