SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of Sorghum
Drought stress severely threatens the yield of cereal crops. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanism of drought stress response of plants is crucial for developing drought-tolerant cultivars. NAC transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in abiotic stress of plants, but the functions...
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MDPI AG
2023-01-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/3/2401 |
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| author | Xueying Jin Yuchen Zheng Jingyi Wang Wei Chen Zhen Yang Yaxin Chen Yonghua Yang Guihua Lu Bo Sun |
| author_facet | Xueying Jin Yuchen Zheng Jingyi Wang Wei Chen Zhen Yang Yaxin Chen Yonghua Yang Guihua Lu Bo Sun |
| author_sort | Xueying Jin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Drought stress severely threatens the yield of cereal crops. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanism of drought stress response of plants is crucial for developing drought-tolerant cultivars. NAC transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in abiotic stress of plants, but the functions of NAC TFs in sorghum are largely unknown. Here, we characterized a sorghum NAC gene, <i>SbNAC9</i>, and found that <i>SbNAC9</i> can be highly induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG)-simulated dehydration treatments. We therefore investigated the function of SbNAC9 in drought stress response. Sorghum seedlings overexpressing <i>SbNAC9</i> showed enhanced drought-stress tolerance with higher chlorophyll content and photochemical efficiency of PSII, stronger root systems, and higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capability than wild-type. In contrast, sorghum seedlings with silenced <i>SbNAC9</i> by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) showed weakened drought stress tolerance. Furthermore, SbNAC9 can directly activate a putative peroxidase gene <i>SbC5YQ75</i> and a putative ABA biosynthesis gene <i>SbNCED3</i>. Silencing <i>SbC5YQ75</i> and <i>SbNCED3</i> led to compromised drought tolerance and reduced ABA content of sorghum seedlings, respectively. Therefore, our findings revealed the important role of SbNAC9 in response to drought stress in sorghum and may shed light on genetic improvement of other crop species under drought-stress conditions. |
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| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:42:19Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
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| series | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-e2f448e97c2a49278bef80b2b735bf272023-11-16T16:56:44ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1661-65961422-00672023-01-01243240110.3390/ijms24032401SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of SorghumXueying Jin0Yuchen Zheng1Jingyi Wang2Wei Chen3Zhen Yang4Yaxin Chen5Yonghua Yang6Guihua Lu7Bo Sun8State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, ChinaDrought stress severely threatens the yield of cereal crops. Therefore, understanding the molecular mechanism of drought stress response of plants is crucial for developing drought-tolerant cultivars. NAC transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in abiotic stress of plants, but the functions of NAC TFs in sorghum are largely unknown. Here, we characterized a sorghum NAC gene, <i>SbNAC9</i>, and found that <i>SbNAC9</i> can be highly induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG)-simulated dehydration treatments. We therefore investigated the function of SbNAC9 in drought stress response. Sorghum seedlings overexpressing <i>SbNAC9</i> showed enhanced drought-stress tolerance with higher chlorophyll content and photochemical efficiency of PSII, stronger root systems, and higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging capability than wild-type. In contrast, sorghum seedlings with silenced <i>SbNAC9</i> by virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) showed weakened drought stress tolerance. Furthermore, SbNAC9 can directly activate a putative peroxidase gene <i>SbC5YQ75</i> and a putative ABA biosynthesis gene <i>SbNCED3</i>. Silencing <i>SbC5YQ75</i> and <i>SbNCED3</i> led to compromised drought tolerance and reduced ABA content of sorghum seedlings, respectively. Therefore, our findings revealed the important role of SbNAC9 in response to drought stress in sorghum and may shed light on genetic improvement of other crop species under drought-stress conditions.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/3/2401<i>Sorghum bicolor</i>drought stressNAC transcription factorreactive oxygen species (ROS)virus induced-gene silencing |
| spellingShingle | Xueying Jin Yuchen Zheng Jingyi Wang Wei Chen Zhen Yang Yaxin Chen Yonghua Yang Guihua Lu Bo Sun SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of Sorghum International Journal of Molecular Sciences <i>Sorghum bicolor</i> drought stress NAC transcription factor reactive oxygen species (ROS) virus induced-gene silencing |
| title | SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of Sorghum |
| title_full | SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of Sorghum |
| title_fullStr | SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of Sorghum |
| title_full_unstemmed | SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of Sorghum |
| title_short | SbNAC9 Improves Drought Tolerance by Enhancing Scavenging Ability of Reactive Oxygen Species and Activating Stress-Responsive Genes of Sorghum |
| title_sort | sbnac9 improves drought tolerance by enhancing scavenging ability of reactive oxygen species and activating stress responsive genes of sorghum |
| topic | <i>Sorghum bicolor</i> drought stress NAC transcription factor reactive oxygen species (ROS) virus induced-gene silencing |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/3/2401 |
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