Open Access

ARTICLE

Genome-wide identification of NAC gene family and expression analysis under abiotic stresses in Salvia miltiorrhiza

XIN LI¹, JIANMIN PAN¹, FAISAL ISLAM², JUANJUAN LI¹, ZHUONI HOU¹, ZONGQI YANG¹, LING XU^1,*

1 Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Plant Secondary Metabolism and Regulation, College of Life Sciences and Medicine, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, China
2 Institute of Crop Science, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Laboratory of Spectroscopy Sensing, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

* Corresponding Author: Ling Xu,

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plant Stress Tolerance)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(8), 1947-1958. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.019806

Received 16 October 2021; Accepted 27 December 2021; Issue published 22 April 2022

Abstract

NAC (NAM, ATAF, CUC) is a class of transcription factors involved in plant growth regulation, abiotic stress responses, morphogenesis and metabolism. Salvia miltiorrhiza is an important Chinese medicinal herb, but the characterization of NAC genes in this species is limited. In this study, based on the Salvia miltiorrhiza genomic databases, 82 NAC transcription factors were identified, which were divided into 14 groups. Meanwhile, phylogenetic analysis, gene structure, chromosomal localization and potential role of SmNACs in abiotic stress conditions were also studied. The results revealed that some SmNACs had different structures than others, which advised that these genes may have multiple/distinct functions. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis showed that SmNACs exhibited differential expression patterns under salt and drought stress. The NaCl induced salinity treatments modulated the expression of several SmNAC genes more in roots compared with leaves. Conversely, under drought stress conditions, more genes were upregulated in leaves compared with roots. These results will be useful for the further study involved in the functional characteristics of SmNAC genes, especially in response to salt and drought stresses, thereby may facilitate genetic breeding in Salvia miltiorrhiza.

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Keywords

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