Ding Ning, Zhao Ying, Wang Weixiang, Liu Xuyang, Shi Wentong, Zhang Dengfeng, Chen Jiajie, Ma Shuo, Sun Qingpeng, Wang Tianyu, Lu Min
Beijing Key Laboratory for Agricultural Application and New Technique, College of Plant Science and Technology, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China.
Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/the National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement (NFCRI), Beijing, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2023 Jan 19;13:1097719. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1097719. eCollection 2022.
Drought substantially influences crop growth and development. NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2) transcription factors (TFs) have received much attention for their critical roles in drought stress responses. To explore the maize NAC genes in response to drought stress, the transcriptome sequencing data of NAC TFs in two maize inbred lines, the drought tolerance line H082183 and the sensitive line Lv28, were used to screen the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). There were 129 maize NAC protein-coding genes identified, of which 15 and 20 NAC genes were differentially expressed between the two genotypes under MD and SD treatments, respectively. Meanwhile, the phylogenetic relationship of 152 non-redundant NAC family TFs in maize was generated. The maize NAC family proteins were grouped into 13 distinct subfamilies. Five drought stress-responsive NAC family members, which were designed as ZmNAP, ZmNAC19, ZmNAC4, ZmJUB1(JUBGBRUNNEN1), and ZmNAC87, were selected for further study. The expression of , , , , and were significantly induced by drought, dehydration, polyethylene glycol (PEG) stress, and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. The overexpressing of these five NAC genes was generated for functional characterization, respectively. Under different concentrations of NaCl, D-mannitol stress, and ABA treatments, the sensitivity of , , , , and overexpressing lines was significantly increased at the germination stage compared to the wild-type lines. The overexpression of these five NAC members significantly improved the drought stress tolerance in transgenic . Yeast two-hybrid screening analysis revealed that ZmNAP may cooperatively interact with 11 proteins including ZmNAC19 to activate the drought stress response. The above results inferred that , , , , and may play important roles in the plant response to drought stress and may be useful in bioengineering breeding and drought tolerance improvement.
干旱对作物生长发育有显著影响。NAC（NAM、ATAF1/2和CUC2）转录因子因其在干旱胁迫响应中的关键作用而备受关注。为了探究玉米NAC基因对干旱胁迫的响应，利用耐旱自交系H082183和敏感自交系Lv28这两个玉米自交系中NAC转录因子的转录组测序数据来筛选差异表达基因（DEG）。共鉴定出129个玉米NAC蛋白编码基因，其中分别有15个和20个NAC基因在中度干旱（MD）和重度干旱（SD）处理下在两种基因型之间差异表达。同时，构建了玉米中152个非冗余NAC家族转录因子的系统发育关系。玉米NAC家族蛋白被分为13个不同的亚家族。选择了五个干旱胁迫响应NAC家族成员，分别命名为ZmNAP、ZmNAC19、ZmNAC4、ZmJUB1（JUBGBRUNNEN1）和ZmNAC87进行进一步研究。ZmNAP、ZmNAC19、ZmNAC4、ZmJUB1和ZmNAC87的表达在干旱、脱水、聚乙二醇（PEG）胁迫和脱落酸（ABA）处理下均被显著诱导。分别构建了这五个NAC基因的过表达载体用于功能鉴定。在不同浓度的NaCl、D-甘露醇胁迫和ABA处理下，与野生型品系相比，ZmNAP、ZmNAC19、ZmNAC4、ZmJUB1和ZmNAC87过表达品系在萌发阶段的敏感性显著增加。这五个NAC成员的过表达显著提高了转基因植株的干旱胁迫耐受性。酵母双杂交筛选分析表明，ZmNAP可能与包括ZmNAC19在内的11种蛋白质协同相互作用以激活干旱胁迫响应。上述结果推断，ZmNAP、ZmNAC19、ZmNAC4、ZmJUB1和ZmNAC87可能在植物对干旱胁迫的响应中发挥重要作用，并且可能对生物工程育种和提高耐旱性有用。
