The NAC Protein from , , Confers Salt and Osmotic Stress Tolerance by Increasing Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Capability.

Plant specific NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2 and CUC2) transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in response to abiotic stress. In this study, we identified and characterized a NAC protein, ThNAC7, from . is a nuclear localized protein and has transcriptional activation activity. expression was markedly induced by salt and osmotic stresses. Transiently transformed seedlings overexpressing (OE) or with RNA interference (RNAi) silenced were generated to investigate abiotic stress tolerance via the gain- and loss- of function. Overexpressing showed an increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capabilities and proline content, which was accomplished by enhancing the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) in transiently transformed and stably transformed plants. Additionally, activated these physiological changes by regulating the transcription level of , and . RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) comparison between wild-type and -transformed showed that more than 40 known salt tolerance genes might regulated by , including stress tolerance-related genes and TF genes. The results indicated that induces the transcription level of genes associated with stress tolerance to enhance salt and osmotic stress tolerance via an increase in osmotic potential and enhanced ROS scavenging.