Alternative Splicing of from Moso Bamboo Impacts Flowering Regulation and Drought Tolerance in Transgenic .

NAC (NAM, ATAF, and CUC) transcription factors are essential in regulating plant stress response and senescence, with their functions being modulated by alternative splicing. The molecular mechanisms of stress-induced premature flowering and drought tolerance in (moso bamboo) are not yet fully understood. In this study, a novel NAC variant derived from , named , was isolated. PheNAC23 exhibited distinct expression patterns compared to PheNAC23 during leaf senescence and drought stress response. Overexpression of promoted flowering and reduced its tolerance to drought stress in (). However, overexpression of exhibited the opposite functions. PheNAC23 was localized in the nucleus and had transactivation activity, while PheNAC23 had a similar localization to the control green fluorescent protein and no transactivation activity. Further functional analysis revealed that PheNAC23 could interact with PheNAC23, suggesting that PheNAC23 might serve as a small interfering peptide that affects the function of PheNAC23 by binding to it.