Identification of the NAC Transcription Factor Family during Early Seed Development in Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz

Huijuan Liu; Songshu Chen; Xiaomao Wu; Jinling Li; Cunbin Xu; Mingjin Huang; Hualei Wang; Hongchang Liu; Zhi Zhao

doi:10.3390/plants12071518

Identification of the NAC Transcription Factor Family during Early Seed Development in Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz

Plants (Basel). 2023 Mar 31;12(7):1518. doi: 10.3390/plants12071518.

Authors

Huijuan Liu^{1

2}, Songshu Chen², Xiaomao Wu², Jinling Li², Cunbin Xu^{1

2}, Mingjin Huang², Hualei Wang², Hongchang Liu², Zhi Zhao²

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Sciences, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.
² Guizhou Key Laboratory of Propagation and Cultivation on Medicinal Plants, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.

Abstract

This study aimed to gain an understanding of the possible function of NACs by examining their physicochemical properties, structure, chromosomal location, and expression. Being a family of plant-specific transcription factors, NAC (petunia no apical meristem and Arabidopsis thaliana ATAF1, ATAF2, and CUC2) is involved in plant growth and development. None of the NAC genes has been reported in Akebia trifoliata (Thunb.) Koidz (A. trifoliata). In this study, we identified 101 NAC proteins (AktNACs) in the A. trifoliata genome by bioinformatic analysis. One hundred one AktNACs were classified into the following twelve categories based on the phylogenetic analysis of NAC protein: NAC-a, NAC-b, NAC-c, NAC-d, NAC-e, NAC-f, NAC-g, NAC-h, NAC-i, NAC-j, NAC-k, and NAC-l. The accuracy of the clustering results was demonstrated based on the gene structure and conserved motif analysis of AktNACs. In addition, we identified 44 pairs of duplication genes, confirming the importance of purifying selection in the evolution of AktNACs. The morphology and microstructure of early A. trifoliata seed development showed that it mainly underwent rapid cell division, seed enlargement, embryo formation and endosperm development. We constructed AktNACs co-expression network and metabolite correlation network based on transcriptomic and metabolomic data of A. trifoliata seeds. The results of the co-expression network showed that 25 AtNAC genes were co-expressed with 233 transcription factors. Metabolite correlation analysis showed that 23 AktNACs were highly correlated with 28 upregulated metabolites. Additionally, 25 AktNACs and 235 transcription factors formed co-expression networks with 141 metabolites, based on correlation analysis involving AktNACs, transcription factors, and metabolites. Notably, AktNAC095 participates in the synthesis of 35 distinct metabolites. Eight of these metabolites, strongly correlated with AktNAC095, were upregulated during early seed development. These studies may provide insight into the evolution, possible function, and expression of AktNACs genes.

Keywords: Akebia trifoliata; NAC family; early seed development; metabolites; transcription factor.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Guizhou Province Science and Technology Plan Project (Grant number: No. 1061), the “Hundred” Level Innovative Talent Foundation of Guizhou Province (Grant number: No. GCC [2022]023-1), the Research on targeted knockout of fruit cracking-related genes based on CRISPR/Cas9 system” (Grant number: [2019] No.1061), and the Talent 532 Base Project of Organization Department in Guizhou Province, China (Grant number: QRLF (2013) 533 no. 15) (Grant number: QRLF (2016) no. 23) (Grant number: QRLF (2020) no. 2).