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Ectopic expression of a poplar gene NAC13 confers enhanced tolerance to salinity stress in transgenic Nicotiana tabacum

  • Regular Paper – Physiology/Biochemistry/Molecular and Cellular Biology
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Abstract

NACs are one of the major transcription factor families in plants which play an important role in plant growth and development, as well as in adverse stress responses. In this study, we cloned a salt-inducible NAC transcription factor gene (NAC13) from a poplar variety 84K, followed by transforming it into both Nicotiana tabacum and Arabidopsis thaliana. Stable expression analysis of 35S::NAC13-GFP fusion protein in Arabidopsis indicated that NAC13 protein was localized to the nucleus. We also obtained five transgenic tobacco lines. Evidence from morphological and physiological characterization and salt treatment analyses indicated that in the transgenic tobacco the salt tolerance was enhanced, suggesting that NAC13 gene may function as a positive regulator in tobacco responses to salt stress.

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Acknowledgements

TJ and BZ designed research. ZC conducted experiments, data analysis and wrote the manuscript. XZ and KZ performed in data analysis. All authors read and approved the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Key Program on Transgenic Research (2018ZX08020002) and the 111 project (B16010).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Northeast Forestry University, 51 Hexing Road, Harbin, 150040, China

    Zihan Cheng, Xuemei Zhang, Kai Zhao, Boru Zhou & Tingbo Jiang

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  1. Zihan Cheng
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  2. Xuemei Zhang
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Cheng, Z., Zhang, X., Zhao, K. et al. Ectopic expression of a poplar gene NAC13 confers enhanced tolerance to salinity stress in transgenic Nicotiana tabacum. J Plant Res 133, 727–737 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-020-01213-z

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