A stress-responsive transcription factor PeNAC1 regulating beta-D-glucan biosynthetic genes enhances salt tolerance in oat

• Published in: Planta 2021-12, Vol.254 (6), p.1-14, Article 130
• Main Authors: Liang, Xiao-Dong, Shalapy, Mohamed, Zhao, Shi-Feng, Liu, Jing-Hui, Wang, Jun-Ying
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abiotic stress; Agriculture; Avena - genetics; Avena - metabolism; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Chlorophyll; Cultivation; Ecology; Forestry; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes; Genetic engineering; Germination; Glucan; Glucans; Grain cultivation; Life Sciences; Oats; ORIGINAL ARTICLE; Plant breeding; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plant Sciences; Plants, Genetically Modified - metabolism; Populus euphratica; Salinity; Salinity effects; Salinity tolerance; Salt tolerance; Salt Tolerance - genetics; Seed germination; Seedlings; Stress, Physiological - genetics; Survival; Transcription factors; Transcription Factors - genetics; Transcription Factors - metabolism; Transgenic plants; β-Glucan
• ISSN: 0032-0935; 1432-2048
• DOI: 10.1007/s00425-021-03770-6

Salinity is the major factor affecting the production and quality of oat, and improving oat salt tolerance to increase yield and quality is vital. (1,3;1,4)-β-D-glucan in Gramineae is the key component in response to various environmental signals, and it is the most important functional ingredient in oat grain. The NAC transcription factors are important candidate genes used in genetic engineering to improve plant abiotic stress tolerance. In this study, we introduced Populus euphratica PeNAC1, controlled by its own promoter, into hexaploid cultivated oat and produced six transgenic lines. Compared to the non-transgenic control, the expression of PeNAC1 significantly improved the seed germination rate, seedling survival rate, and leaf chlorophyll content in the transgenic plants under salt stress. These physiological changes increased the spikelet number and grain number per spike in the transgenic oat under salinity conditions and reduced the yield loss per plant. The results indicated that the heterologous expression of PeNAC1 plays an effective role in improving the salt tolerance in transgenic oat. In addition, overexpressing PeNAC1 significantly increased the (1,3;1,4)-β-D-glucan content as well as the expression level of the (1,3;1,4)-β-D-glucan biosynthetic genes AsCslF3, AsCslF6, and AsCslF9 in the transgenic lines under salt stress, which suggested that PeNAC1 regulates the synthesis of (1,3;1,4)-β-D-glucan. Our research should assist in the discovery of the diverse action modes of NAC proteins, while PeNAC1 will be useful for improving the salt tolerance and quality of oat through molecular breeding.