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Characterization of NAC domain transcription factors implicated in control of vascular cell differentiation in Arabidopsis and Populus

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Abstract

Wood has a wide variety of uses and is arguably the most important renewable raw material. The composition of xylem cell types in wood determines the utility of different types of wood for distinct commercial applications. Using expression profiling and phylogenetic analysis, we identified many xylem-associated regulatory genes that may control the differentiation of cells involved in wood formation in Arabidopsis and poplar. Prominent among these are NAC domain transcription factors (NACs). We studied NACs with putative involvement as negative (XND1 from Arabidopsis and its poplar orthologs PopNAC118, PopNAC122, PopNAC128, PopNAC129), or positive (SND2 and SND3 from Arabidopsis and their poplar orthologs PopNAC105, PopNAC154, PopNAC156, PopNAC157) regulators of secondary cell wall synthesis. Using quantitative PCR and in situ hybridization, we evaluated expression of these Populus NACs in a developmental gradient and in association with reaction wood and found that representatives from both groups were associated with wood-forming tissue and phloem fibers. Additionally, XND1 orthologs were expressed in mesophyll cells of developing leaves. We prepared transgenic Arabidopsis and poplar plants for overexpression of selected NACs. XND1 overexpression in poplar resulted in severe stunting. Additionally, poplar XND1 overexpressors lacked phloem fibers and showed reductions in cell size and number, vessel number, and frequency of rays in the xylem. Overexpression of PopNAC122, an XND1 ortholog, yielded an analogous phenotype in Arabidopsis. Overexpression of PopNAC154 in poplar reduced height growth and increased the relative proportion of bark versus xylem.

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Abbreviations

LPI:

Leaf plastochron index

3′ RACE:

3′ Rapid amplification of cDNA ends

RT-qPCR:

Reverse transcriptase-quantitative PCR

UTR:

Untranslated region

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Sarah Covert for providing her manual annotation and phylogenetic analysis of the P. trichocarpa NAC gene family, and Xiaoyan Sheng, Zhengxing Shen, and Shelley Moore for technical assistance. This work was supported by the Office of Science (BER and BES), U.S. Department of Energy, Grant Nos. DE-FG02-06ER64185, DE-FG02-04ER15627, and DE-FG02-07ER64449.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Emily H. Grant, Takeshi Fujino & Amy M. Brunner

  2. Department of Horticulture, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Emily H. Grant & Eric P. Beers

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  1. Emily H. Grant
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  2. Takeshi Fujino
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  3. Eric P. Beers
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  4. Amy M. Brunner
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Correspondence to Amy M. Brunner.

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E. H. Grant and T. Fujino contributed equally to this work.

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Grant, E.H., Fujino, T., Beers, E.P. et al. Characterization of NAC domain transcription factors implicated in control of vascular cell differentiation in Arabidopsis and Populus . Planta 232, 337–352 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-010-1181-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-010-1181-2

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