The NAC transcription factors play core roles in flowering and ripening fundamental to fruit yield and quality

Abstract

Fruits are derived from flowers and play an important role in human food, nutrition, and health. In general, flowers determine the crop yield, and ripening affects the fruit quality. Although transcription factors (TFs) only account for a small part of plant transcriptomes, they control the global gene expression and regulation. The plant-specific NAC (NAM, ATAF, and CUC) TFs constitute a large family evolving concurrently with the transition of both aquatic-to-terrestrial plants and vegetative-to-reproductive growth. Thus, NACs play an important role in fruit yield and quality by determining shoot apical meristem (SAM) inflorescence and controlling ripening. The present review focuses on the various properties of NACs together with their function and regulation in flower formation and fruit ripening. Hitherto, we have a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of NACs in ripening through abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene (ETH), but how NACs regulate the expression of the inflorescence formation-related genes is largely unknown. In the future, we should focus on the analysis of NAC redundancy and identify the pivotal regulators of flowering and ripening. NACs are potentially vital manipulation targets for improving fruit quantity and quality.

NACs strike again: NOR-like1 is responsible for cuticle development in tomato fruit

“…1 . The following processes are all regulated by NAC TFs: seed development and germination ( Verza et al , 2011 ; Wang et al , 2014 ; Mathew et al , 2016 ; Song et al , 2022 ); secondary cell wall development ( Hussey et al , 2011 ; Chai et al , 2015 ; Matias Hurtado et al , 2020 ; Sun et al , 2020 ); root development ( Montiel et al , 2004 ; Zhang et al , 2018 ; Xu et al , 2022 ); floral development ( Sablowski and Meyerowitz, 1998 ; Yoo et al , 2007 ; Zhong et al , 2016 ; Zong et al , 2020 ); fruit development, maturation, and ripening (for recent review articles, see Forlani et al ., 2021 ; Kou et al ., 2021 ; Liu et al ., 2022 , 2023 ); leaf senescence ( Guo and Gan, 2006 ; Yang et al , 2014 ; Fan et al , 2015 ; Ma et al , 2018 ); temperature stress ( Zhou et al , 2011 ; Guan et al , 2014 ; Liu et al , 2019 ; Yong et al , 2019 ); drought stress ( Sosa-Valencia et al , 2017 ; Selote et al , 2018 ; Sakuraba et al , 2020 ); and biotic stress ( Shan et al , 2016 ; Guo et al , 2017 ; Wang et al , 2020 ; Li et al , 2021 ).…”

“…It is well documented that fruit development, maturation, and ripening are regulated by NAC TFs (for recent review articles, see Forlani et al , 2021 ; Kou et al , 2021 ; Liu et al , 2022 , 2023 ). NAC-NOR, the NAC TF encoded by the non-ripening ( nor ) mutant in tomato, is the longest studied NAC TF involved in fruit ripening.…”

Molecular regulation of apple and grape ripening: exploring common and distinct transcriptional aspects of representative climacteric and non-climacteric fruits

“…Although MYBs represent one of the largest classes of transcription factors within each genome, other categories of transcription factor can also play an important role in the overall control of the fruit ripening processes. Among them it is worth noting members of the NAC family (NAM, ATAF1/2 and CUC2) that have been recently documented as master regulators of fruit ripening in both climacteric and non-climacteric fruits ( Forlani et al , 2021 ; Liu et al , 2022 ; Liu et al , 2023 ). Interestingly, it was recently demonstrated in both apple and grapevine that NAC transcription factors can directly regulate MYB-type transcription factors.…”

Emerging Roles of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling Pathways in the Regulation of Fruit Ripening and Postharvest Quality

“…Enzymatic regulation can be achieved transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally. Transcriptional regulation is largely determined by transcription factors (TFs), whereas post-transcriptional regulation is achieved by the group modification of the topological structure, which may result in changes in many protein behaviors, such as activity, stability and cellular localization [ 3 , 9 , 10 ]. Protein kinase/phosphatase-catalyzed reversible phosphorylation has been established to be the major mechanism of protein modification and therefore plays a pivotal role in cellular signal transduction [ 11 , 12 ].…”