Lu Min, Sun Qing-Peng, Zhang Deng-Feng, Wang Tian-Yu, Pan Jin-Bao
Beijing Key Laboratory for Agricultural Application and New Technique, College of Plant Science and Technology, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing 102206, China.
Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/the National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement (NFCRI), Beijing 100081, China.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2015 Jun 26;462(2):144-50. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2015.04.113. Epub 2015 May 1.
NAC proteins are plant-specific transcription factors that play essential roles in plant development and various abiotic stress responses. A comprehensive analysis of maize NAC genes was performed in this study. A total of 157 non-redundant maize NAC genes including seven membrane-bound members were identified and found to be unevenly distributed on 10 maize chromosomes. Motif composition analysis indicated that the maize NAC proteins share three relatively conserved motifs in the NAC domain within the N-terminal region. Phylogenetic analysis of 157 maize NAC proteins accompanied by 117 NAC proteins from Arabidopsis and 151 from rice were presented. The NAC proteins evaluated were divided into two large groups including 18 subgroups. Gene duplication analysis indicated that gene loss occurred during maize evolution. Seven NAC members that belong to the same clade of maize NAC domain genes were isolated, and overlapping expression patterns were observed under various abiotic stresses, including low temperature, high salinity and dehydration, and phytohormone abscisic acid treatments. This suggested that NAC members function as stress-responsive transcription factors in ABA-dependent signaling pathways. Relatively higher expression levels of these selected maize NAC genes were detected in roots. The stress responsive NAC genes may have applications in molecular breeding to improve crop stress tolerance.
NAC蛋白是植物特有的转录因子，在植物发育和各种非生物胁迫响应中发挥着重要作用。本研究对玉米NAC基因进行了全面分析。共鉴定出157个非冗余玉米NAC基因，其中包括7个膜结合成员，发现它们在10条玉米染色体上分布不均。基序组成分析表明，玉米NAC蛋白在N端区域的NAC结构域中共有三个相对保守的基序。对157个玉米NAC蛋白以及来自拟南芥的117个NAC蛋白和来自水稻的151个NAC蛋白进行了系统发育分析。所评估的NAC蛋白被分为两大组，包括18个亚组。基因重复分析表明，在玉米进化过程中发生了基因丢失。分离出属于玉米NAC结构域基因同一进化枝的7个NAC成员，在包括低温、高盐度和脱水以及植物激素脱落酸处理在内的各种非生物胁迫下观察到重叠的表达模式。这表明NAC成员在ABA依赖的信号通路中作为胁迫响应转录因子发挥作用。在根中检测到这些选定的玉米NAC基因相对较高的表达水平。胁迫响应NAC基因可能在分子育种中用于提高作物胁迫耐受性。
