Genome-Wide Investigation of the NAC Transcription Factor Family in Miscanthus sinensis and Expression Analysis Under Various Abiotic Stresses

Abstract

The NAC transcription factor family is deemed to be a large plant-specific gene family that plays important roles in plant development and stress response. Miscanthus sinensis is commonly planted in vast marginal land as forage, ornamental grass, or bioenergy crop which demand a relatively high resistance to abiotic stresses. The recent release of a draft chromosome-scale assembly genome of M. sinensis provided a basic platform for the genome-wide investigation of NAC proteins. In this study, a total of 261 M. sinensis NAC genes were identified and a complete overview of the gene family was presented, including gene structure, conserved motif compositions, chromosomal distribution, and gene duplications. Results showed that gene length, molecular weights (MW), and theoretical isoelectric points (pI) of NAC family were varied, while gene structure and motifs were relatively conserved. Chromosomal mapping analysis found that the M. sinensis NAC genes were unevenly distributed on 19 M. sinensis chromosomes, and the interchromosomal evolutionary analysis showed that nine pairs of tandem duplicates genes and 121 segmental duplications were identified, suggesting that gene duplication, especially segmental duplication, is possibly associated with the amplification of M. sinensis NAC gene family. The expression patterns of 14 genes from M. sinensis SNAC subgroup were analyzed under high salinity, PEG, and heavy metals, and multiple NAC genes could be induced by the treatment. These results will provide a very useful reference for follow-up study of the functional characteristics of NAC genes in the mechanism of stress-responsive and potential roles in the development of M. sinensis.

Genome-Wide Identification of NAC Family Genes in Oat and Functional Characterization of AsNAC109 in Abiotic Stress Tolerance

“…Collinearity analysis showed that there are 157 duplication events among oat NAC genes, comprising 146 segmental duplication events and 11 tandem duplication events, indicating that segmental duplication dominated oat gene expansion events. Similar results were reported for Miscanthus sinensis [21] and Triticum dicoccoides [23]. Gene duplication can be driven by DNA break repair.…”

“…Compared with that in other plant species, the number of NAC genes identified in cultivated oat is relatively high. In most cases, differences in the number of NAC genes could be attributed to differences in the genome size of each species [21]. Therefore, the high number of NAC genes in oat is partly caused by the derivation of the cultivated hexaploid oat from the hybridization of three diploid ancestors, thus containing six sets of chromosomes (AA, CC, and DD subgenomes).…”

Genome-Wide Characterization and Expression Profiling of the GRAS Gene Family in Salt and Alkali Stresses in Miscanthus sinensis

“…PCR reactions were carried out with triplicate. The relative expression of target genes was normalized to the internal reference gene ACTIN ( Unigene33024 ) [ 59 ] using the 2 −ΔΔCT method. Primers are listed in Table S1 .…”

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the NAC Gene Family in Kandelia obovata, a Typical Mangrove Plant

“…Britton & Rose [ 9 ], Juglans mandshurica Maxim. [ 10 ], Medicago sativa L. [ 11 ], Miscanthus sinensis Andersson [ 12 ], banana ( Musa acuminata Colla) [ 13 ], Oryza sativa L. [ 5 ], Populus trichocarpa Torr. & A.…”