Abstract
BackgroundPearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a cereal crop that possesses the ability to withstand drought, salinity and high temperature stresses. The NAC [NAM (No Apical Meristem), ATAF1 (Arabidopsis thaliana Activation Factor 1), and CUC2 (Cup-shaped Cotyledon)] transcription factor family is one of the largest transcription factor families in plants. NAC family members are known to regulate plant growth and abiotic stress response. Currently, no reports are available on the functions of the NAC family in pearl millet.ResultsOur genome-wide analysis found 151 NAC transcription factor genes (PgNACs) in the pearl millet genome. Thirty-eight and 76 PgNACs were found to be segmental and dispersed duplicated respectively. Phylogenetic analysis divided these NAC transcription factors into 11 groups (A-K). Three PgNACs (− 073, − 29, and − 151) were found to be membrane-associated transcription factors. Seventeen other conserved motifs were found in PgNACs. Based on the similarity of PgNACs to NAC proteins in other species, the functions of PgNACs were predicted. In total, 88 microRNA target sites were predicted in 59 PgNACs. A previously performed transcriptome analysis suggests that the expression of 30 and 42 PgNACs are affected by salinity stress and drought stress, respectively. The expression of 36 randomly selected PgNACs were examined by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR. Many of these genes showed diverse salt- and drought-responsive expression patterns in roots and leaves. These results confirm that PgNACs are potentially involved in regulating abiotic stress tolerance in pearl millet.ConclusionThe pearl millet genome contains 151 NAC transcription factor genes that can be classified into 11 groups. Many of these genes are either upregulated or downregulated by either salinity or drought stress and may therefore contribute to establishing stress tolerance in pearl millet.
Highlights
Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a cereal crop that possesses the ability to withstand drought, salinity and high temperature stresses
All the identified NAC genes were named by adding the prefix “Pg”, for Pennisetum glaucum, and were numbered according to their chromosomal position, yielding PgNAC001 to PgNAC151
To understand evolution and collinearity of NAC family between the species, we identified members of PgNAC family that are collinear with the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana
Summary
Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a cereal crop that possesses the ability to withstand drought, salinity and high temperature stresses. It is a nutritionally superior crop for people living in arid and semi-arid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent It can withstand harsh environmental conditions such as drought, salinity and high temperature [1]. Breeding abiotic stress-tolerant crops such as pearl millet is important to secure the food supply even under these conditions. To cope with these environmental stresses, plants activate defense responses, including the activation of sets of metabolic pathways and genes. NAC transcription factor, TaNAC69 leads to enhanced tolerance to drought stress through increased expression of stress related genes [18]. All these study supports that NAC genes governs abiotic stress response of plants
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