Abstract
Abstract
Background
Peanut is one of the most important oil crop species worldwide. NAC transcription factor (TF) genes play important roles in the salt and drought stress responses of plants by activating or repressing target gene expression. However, little is known about NAC genes in peanut.
Results
We performed a genome-wide characterization of NAC genes from the diploid wild peanut species Arachis duranensis and Arachis ipaensis, which included analyses of chromosomal locations, gene structures, conserved motifs, expression patterns, and cis-acting elements within their promoter regions. In total, 81 and 79 NAC genes were identified from A. duranensis and A. ipaensis genomes. Phylogenetic analysis of peanut NACs along with their Arabidopsis and rice counterparts categorized these proteins into 18 distinct subgroups. Fifty-one orthologous gene pairs were identified, and 46 orthologues were found to be highly syntenic on the chromosomes of both A. duranensis and A. ipaensis. Comparative RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based analysis revealed that the expression of 43 NAC genes was up- or downregulated under salt stress and under drought stress. Among these genes, the expression of 17 genes in cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea) was up- or downregulated under both stresses. Moreover, quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR)-based analysis revealed that the expression of most of the randomly selected NAC genes tended to be consistent with the comparative RNA-seq results.
Conclusion
Our results facilitated the functional characterization of peanut NAC genes, and the genes involved in salt and drought stress responses identified in this study could be potential genes for peanut improvement.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference56 articles.
1. Bertioli DJ, Cannon SB, Froenicke L, Huang G, Farmer AD, Cannon EK, et al. The genome sequences of Arachis duranensis and Arachis ipaensis, the diploid ancestors of cultivated peanut. Nat Genet. 2016;48(4):438–46.
2. Vahdati K, Lotfi N. Abiotic stress tolerance in plants with emphasizing on drought and salinity stresses in walnut. In: Vahdati K, Leslie C, editors. Abiotic stress-plant responses and applications in agriculture. Rijeka: InTech; 2013. p. 307–65.
3. Arab MM, Marrano A, Abdollahi-Arpanahi R, Leslie CA, Cheng H, Neale DB, Vahdati K. Combining phenotype, genotype and environment to uncover genetic components underlying water use efficiency in Persian walnut. J Exp Bot. 2020;71(3):1107–27.
4. Zhu J. Abiotic stress signaling and responses in plants. Cell. 2016;167(2):313–24.
5. Qu LJ, Zhu YX. Transcription factor families in Arabidopsis: major progress and outstanding issues for future research. Curr Opin Plant Biol. 2006;9(5):544–9.