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Genome-wide investigation of the NAC transcription factor family in melon (Cucumis melo L.) and their expression analysis under salt stress

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Abstract

Key message

82 melon NAC (CmNAC) genes were identified in melon. We putatively identified the function of CmNAC gene in melon under salt stress.

Abstract

NAC transcription factor proteins play important roles in many biological processes, including plant development and stress responses. To date, few full-length melon NAC proteins have been identified. In this study, 82 melon NAC (CmNAC) genes were identified in the Cucumis melo L. genome. By interrogating our cDNA libraries and transcriptome data from melon under salt stress, and comparison of their phylogenetic relationship with Arabidopsis NAC salt stress-related genes, we putatively identified that the fourth clade of CmNAC genes were involved in the salt stress response, especially the second clade of the group IV of the phylogenetic tree. Expression analysis confirmed that eleven of the twelve CmNAC genes from the group IV were induced in melon seedling roots by salt stress; the other gene was down regulated by salt stress. The expression of CmNAC14 continually increased in 12 h under salt stress, and was selected for transformation into Arabidopsis for functional verification. Overexpression of CmNAC14 increased the sensitivity of transgenic Arabidopsis lines to salt stress, which were simultaneously demonstrated by reduced expression of abiotic stress-response genes and variation in several physiological indices. This study increases our knowledge and may enable further characterization of the roles of CmNAC family in the response to salt stress.

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Abbreviations

TFs:

Transcription factors

PTFDB:

Plant transcription factor database

SSH:

Suppression subtractive hybridization

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time PCR

EL:

Electrolyte leakage

MDA:

Malondialdehyde

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr Doudou Guo for useful imaging technology support and Dr Lida Zhang for bioinformatic analysis of CmNACs. This work was supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31372079), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai Science and Technology Committee (13ZR1422400), The construction of industrial technology system in watermelon and melon in Shanghai. 

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Plant Science, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, China

      Shiwei Wei, Liwei Gao, Yidong Zhang, Furong Zhang, Xiao Yang & Danfeng Huang

    2. Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (South), Ministry of Agriculture, Shanghai, China

      Shiwei Wei, Liwei Gao, Yidong Zhang, Furong Zhang, Xiao Yang & Danfeng Huang

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    1. Shiwei Wei
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    Correspondence to Danfeng Huang.

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    Communicated by Stefan Schillberg.

    S. Wei and L. Gao both authors contributed equally to this work.

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    Wei, S., Gao, L., Zhang, Y. et al. Genome-wide investigation of the NAC transcription factor family in melon (Cucumis melo L.) and their expression analysis under salt stress. Plant Cell Rep 35, 1827–1839 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-016-1997-8

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