Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa) responds to various abiotic stresses during growth. Plant-specific NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2 (NAC) transcription factors (TFs) play an important role in controlling numerous vital growth and developmental processes. To date, 170 NAC TFs have been reported in rice, but their roles remain largely unknown. Herein, we discovered that the TF OsNAC006 is constitutively expressed in rice, and regulated by H2O2, cold, heat, abscisic acid (ABA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin (GA), NaCl, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 treatments. Furthermore, knockout of OsNAC006 using the CRISPR-Cas9 system resulted in drought and heat sensitivity. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) transcriptome analysis revealed that OsNAC006 regulates the expression of genes mainly involved in response to stimuli, oxidoreductase activity, cofactor binding, and membrane-related pathways. Our findings elucidate the important role of OsNAC006 in drought responses, and provide valuable information for genetic manipulation to enhance stress tolerance in future plant breeding programs.
Highlights
Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important food crops for humans, and different abiotic stresses can affect plant growth and crop performance [1,2]
RNA was extracted from different tissues and RT-qPCR was performed to determine the expression pattern of OsNAC006
The results indicated that OsNAC006 was expressed in both seedling and heading stages in all tissues, with highest levels in stems and leaves (Figure 1A)
Summary
Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most important food crops for humans, and different abiotic stresses can affect plant growth and crop performance [1,2]. Plants have evolved various mechanisms to reduce the harmful effects of abiotic stresses [9], including regulating transcription factors (TFs) [10,11,12]. Many NAC TFs are involved in plant growth and development, and in responses to biotic and abiotic stresses [18,19]. CRISPR/Cas gene editing technology is gradually applied to many genes related to rice breeding, which is of great significance for agricultural breeding [24]. The mutant plants that had produced the required mutations can lose the CRISPR/Cas vectors through several generations of character isolation. With the emergence of CRISPR/Cas gene editing technology, it is convenient for us to understand the gene function of plants. We cloned the rice NAC TF-encoding gene OsNAC006 (LOC_Os01g09550) and present evidence that mutations of this gene confer drought and heat sensitivity
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