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The transcription factor VaNAC17 from grapevine (Vitis amurensis) enhances drought tolerance by modulating jasmonic acid biosynthesis in transgenic Arabidopsis

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Abstract

Key message

Expression of VaNAC17 improved drought tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis by upregulating stress-responsive genes, modulating JA biosynthesis, and enhancing ROS scavenging.

Abstract

Water deficit severely affects the growth and development of plants such as grapevine (Vitis spp.). Members of the NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2) transcription factor (TF) family participate in drought-stress-induced signal transduction in plants, but little is known about the roles of NAC genes in drought tolerance in grapevine. Here, we explored the role of VaNAC17 in Vitis amurensis, a cold-hardy, drought-tolerant species of grapevine. VaNAC17 was strongly induced in grapevine by drought, exogenous abscisic acid (ABA), and methyl jasmonate (MeJA). A transient expression assay in yeast indicated that VaNAC17 functions as a transcriptional activator. Notably, heterologous expression of VaNAC17 in Arabidopsis thaliana enhanced drought tolerance. VaNAC17-expressing Arabidopsis plants showed decreased reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation compared to wild-type plants under drought conditions. RNA-seq analysis indicated that VaNAC17 expression increased the transcription of downstream stress-responsive genes after 5 days of drought treatment, especially genes involved in jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis (such as LOX3, AOC1 and OPR3) and signaling (such as MYC2, JAZ1, VSP1 and CORI3) pathways. Endogenous JA levels increased in VaNAC17-OE plants under drought stress. Taken together, these results indicate that VaNAC17 plays a positive role in drought tolerance by modulating endogenous JA biosynthesis and ROS scavenging.

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Availability of data and material

The raw data of RNA-seq have been submitted to the Sequence Read Archive database (accession number from SRR6080007 to SRR6080014).

Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

AOC:

Allene oxide cyclase

AOS:

Allene oxide synthase

CDS:

Coding sequence

DAB:

Diaminobenzidine

EL:

Electrolyte leakage

JA:

Jasmonic acid

JAZ:

Jasmonate-ZIM domain protein

LOX:

Lipoxygenase

NAC:

NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2

NBT:

Nitro blue tetrazolium

OPR:

Oxophytodienoate reductase

PS II:

Photosystem II

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time PCR

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

STEM:

Short time-series expression miner

TF:

Transcription factor

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Accession No.: 31672132), Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015281) and Grape Breeding Project of Ningxia (NXNYYZ201502).

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Author notes

  1. Lingye Su and Linchuan Fang contributing equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Plant Germplasm Enhancement and Specialty Agriculture/Sino-Africa Joint Research Center, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

    Lingye Su, Linchuan Fang, Zhenfei Zhu, Langlang Zhang, Xiaoming Sun, Qingfeng Wang & Haiping Xin

  2. Center of Economic Botany, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China

    Lingye Su, Linchuan Fang, Langlang Zhang, Xiaoming Sun, Qingfeng Wang & Haiping Xin

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Grape Sciences and Enology, Laboratory of Plant Resources, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Lingye Su, Yi Wang & Shaohua Li

  4. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture Protection and Utilization/Guangdong Academy of Forestry, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Lingye Su

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Zhenfei Zhu & Yi Wang

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  1. Lingye Su
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Contributions

LS, LF and HX: conceived of the study, drafted manuscript; LS, LF, ZZ, LZ, XS and YW: conducted the experiments; QW and SL: corrected manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shaohua Li or Haiping Xin.

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Communicated by Prakash Lakshmanan.

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Su, L., Fang, L., Zhu, Z. et al. The transcription factor VaNAC17 from grapevine (Vitis amurensis) enhances drought tolerance by modulating jasmonic acid biosynthesis in transgenic Arabidopsis. Plant Cell Rep 39, 621–634 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-020-02519-x

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