Yu Xiangli, Meng Qirui, Hou Hongyan, Guo Qiang, Wang Qingjie, Yang Yuqing, Zhang Yanzhao
School of Life Science, Luoyang Normal University, Luoyang, Henan, China.
School of Chemical Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, Fujian, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 Apr 16;16:1559667. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1559667. eCollection 2025.
As one of the largest plant-specific transcription factor families, NAC proteins are crucial for plant growth and development processes and responses to various abiotic and biotic stresses. The published sequenced chromosome-level genome of 'Fengdan'peony provides a powerful tool for the analysis of the NAC gene family in this shrub.
The gene family was identified and characterized using bioinformatic analysis, and RT-qPCR analysis was performed on some PoNACs from the ATAF and NAP subfamilies.
In this study, a total of 82 NAC transcription factors (TFs) were identified in the 'Fengdan' peony genome, with the uneven anchorage of 78 genes on 5 chromosomes, whereas only 4 genes were found to be located on unanchored scaffolds. Through the phylogenetic analysis, 66 genes were classified into 15 distinct subfamilies. The gene structure analysis revealed the variation in the number of exons from 0 to 14. Moreover, the motif analysis indicated that the identified PoNAC TFs possessed conserved NAC domains and motifs. The duplication events of genes included whole-genome duplications (WGDs) or segmental duplications for 14 pairs, tandem duplications for 2 pairs, and proximal duplications for 3 pairs. GO analysis results suggested that the functions of genes were mostly concentrated in the "biological process" GO category. Additionally, the analysis of the expression profiles of genes in different plant organs revealed that only 45 genes were expressed in various tissues, some of them exhibited tissue-specific expression related to plant growth and development. RT-qPCR experiments demonstrated the responses of 8 genes from the ATAF and NAP subfamilies to ABA, heat and drought, suggesting that they may serve as important regulatory factor.
作为最大的植物特异性转录因子家族之一，NAC蛋白对植物生长发育过程以及对各种非生物和生物胁迫的响应至关重要。已发表的‘凤丹’牡丹染色体水平基因组序列为分析该灌木中的NAC基因家族提供了有力工具。
利用生物信息学分析鉴定并表征该基因家族，并对ATAF和NAP亚家族的一些牡丹NAC基因进行RT-qPCR分析。
本研究在‘凤丹’牡丹基因组中总共鉴定出82个NAC转录因子，其中78个基因不均匀地定位在5条染色体上，而只有4个基因位于未定位的 scaffolds 上。通过系统发育分析，66个基因被分为15个不同的亚家族。基因结构分析揭示外显子数量从0到14不等。此外，基序分析表明所鉴定的牡丹NAC转录因子具有保守的NAC结构域和基序。基因的复制事件包括14对的全基因组复制（WGDs）或片段重复、2对的串联重复和3对的近端重复。GO分析结果表明基因功能大多集中在“生物学过程”GO类别中。此外，对不同植物器官中基因表达谱的分析表明，只有45个基因在各种组织中表达，其中一些表现出与植物生长发育相关的组织特异性表达。RT-qPCR实验证明了ATAF和NAP亚家族的8个基因对脱落酸、高温和干旱的响应，表明它们可能作为重要的调控因子。
