NAC transcription factors (TFs) could regulate drought stresses in plants; however, the function of NAC TFs in soybeans remains unclear. To unravel NAC TF function, we established that , a NAC TF from soybean (), was involved in the manipulation of stress tolerance. The expression of was significantly upregulated more than 10-fold under drought stress and more than threefold under abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene (ETH) treatment. In order to determine the function of under drought stress conditions, we generated overexpression and knockout lines. The present findings showed that under drought stress, the survival rate of overexpression lines increased by more than 57% compared with wild-type plants, while t... More
NAC transcription factors (TFs) could regulate drought stresses in plants; however, the function of NAC TFs in soybeans remains unclear. To unravel NAC TF function, we established that , a NAC TF from soybean (), was involved in the manipulation of stress tolerance. The expression of was significantly upregulated more than 10-fold under drought stress and more than threefold under abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene (ETH) treatment. In order to determine the function of under drought stress conditions, we generated overexpression and knockout lines. The present findings showed that under drought stress, the survival rate of overexpression lines increased by more than 57% compared with wild-type plants, while the survival rate of knockout lines decreased by at least 46%. Furthermore, a subcellular localisation analysis showed that the protein is concentrated in the nucleus of the tobacco cell. In addition, we used a yeast two-hybrid assay to identify 185 proteins that interact with . Gene ontology (GO) and KEGG analysis showed that interaction proteins are related to chitin, chlorophyll, ubiquitin-protein transferase, and peroxidase activity. Hence, we have inferred that , as a key gene, could positively regulate soybean tolerance to drought stress.
