Overexpression of PheNAC3 from moso bamboo promotes leaf senescence and enhances abiotic stress tolerance in Arabidopsis.

Lihua Xie,Jian Gao,Yali Xie,Zhanchao Cheng,Xiangyu Li,Yucong Bai,Juan Li,Shaohua Mu,Huifang Zheng,Miaomiao Cai

doi:10.7717/peerj.8716

Lihua Xie, Jian Gao + Show 8 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8716

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Abstract

The NAC family is one of the largest transcription factor families unique to plants, which regulates the growth and development, biotic and abiotic stress responses, and maturation and senescence in plants. In this study, PheNAC3, a NAC gene, was isolated and characterized from moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis). PheNAC3 belong to the NAC1 subgroup and has a conserved NAC domain on the N-terminus, which with 88.74% similarity to ONAC011 protein. PheNAC3 localized in the nucleus and exhibited transactivation activity. PheNAC3 was upregulated during the process of senescence of leaves and detected shoots. PheNAC3 was also induced by ABA, MeJA, NaCl and darkness, but it had no remarkable response to PEG and SA treatments. Overexpression of PheNAC3 could cause precocious senescence in Arabidopsis. Transgenic Arabidopsis displayed faster seed germination, better seedling growth, and a higher survival rate than the wild-type under salt or drought stress conditions. Moreover, AtSAG12 associated with senescence and AtRD29A and AtRD29b related to ABA were upregulated by PheNAC3 overexpression, but AtCAB was inhibited. These findings show that PheNAC3 may participate in leaf senescence and play critical roles in the salt and drought stress response.

Highlights

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is an important biological resource because its juvenile shoots are used for food and in industrial production for its timber
PheNAC3 is a homolog of ONAC011 and NAC1 in moso bamboo To identify the NAC transcription factors (TFs) associated with senescence in moso bamboo, the protein sequence of ONAC011 was used as a query to search against Bamboo.Hic.pep database
Based on the analysis of intron–exon arrangement and conserved domain, the results showed that PheNAC3 contained two introns, three exons and the complete NAM domain

Summary

Introduction

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is an important biological resource because its juvenile shoots are used for food and in industrial production for its timber. It is widely distributed in China, accounting for more than 70% of the national bamboo forest area and has an important economic and ecological value. The flowering interval for moso bamboo is infrequent and ranges from 67 to 100 years. Flower and shoot degeneration of moso bamboo cause a huge economic and ecological loss and has a severe impact on the ecological environment (Liao & Huang, 1984). It is important to determine the specific molecular mechanisms involved in the process of moso bamboo senescence

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