Variation in cis-regulation of a NAC transcription factor contributes to drought tolerance in wheat  

作　　者：Hude Mao Shumin Li Bin Chen Chao Jian Fangming Mei Yifang Zhang Fangfang Li Nan Chen Tian Li Linying Du Li Ding Zhongxue Wang Xinxiu Cheng Xiaojing Wang Zhensheng Kang 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas and College of Plant Protection,Northwest A&F University,Yangling,Shaanxi 712100,China [2]Pioneering Innovation Center for Wheat Stress Tolerance Improvement,State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas,Yangling,Shaanxi 712100,China [3]Key Laboratory of Crop Gene Resources and Germplasm Enhancement,Ministry of Agriculture,Institute of Crop Science,Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Beijing 100081,China [4]State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas and College of Life Science,Northwest A&F University,Yangling,Shaanxi 712100,China [5]Yangling Seed Industry Innovation Center,Yangling,Shaanxi 712100,China

出　　处：《Molecular Plant》2022年第2期276-292,共17页分子植物（英文版）

基　　金：supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31701418 and 32072002);the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China(2019JCW-18);and the 111 Project from the Ministry of Education of China(B07049).

摘　　要：Drought is a major environmental factor limiting wheat production worldwide,and developing drought-tolerant cultivars is a central challenge for wheat breeders globally.Therefore,it is important to identify genetic components determining drought tolerance in wheat.In this study,we identified a wheat NAC gene(TaNAC071-A)that is tightly associated with drought tolerance by a genome-wide association study.Knockdown of TaNAC071-A in wheat attenuated plant drought tolerance,whereas its overexpression significantly enhanced drought tolerance through improved water-use efficiency and increased expression of stress-responsive genes.This heightened water-saving mechanism mitigated the yield loss caused by water deficit.Further candidate gene association analysis showed that a 108-bp insertion in the promoter of TaNAC071-A alters its expression level and contributes to variation in drought tolerance among wheat accessions.This insertion contains two MYB cis-regulatory elements(CREs)that can be directly bound by the MYB transcription activator,TaMYBL1,thereby leading to increased TaNAC071-A expression and plant drought tolerance.Importantly,introgression of this 108-bp insertion allele,TaNAC071-AIn-693,into drought-sensitive cultivars could improve their drought tolerance,demonstrating that it is a valuable genetic resource for wheat breeding.Taken together,our findings highlight a major breakthrough in determining the genetic basis underlying phenotypic variation in wheat drought tolerance and showcase the potential of exploiting CRE-containing indels for improving important agronomical traits.

关 键 词：wheat(Triticum aestivum) drought tolerance GWAS TaNAC071-A cis-regulatory element transcrip-tional regulation 

分 类 号：S512[农业科学—作物学] Q94[生物学—植物学]