Identification and Expression Analysis of NAC Gene Family in Weeping Trait of <i>Lagerstroemia indica</i>

oleh: Cuihua Gu, Linxue Shang, Guozhe Zhang, Qun Wang, Qingqing Ma, Sidan Hong, Yu Zhao, Liyuan Yang

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-08-01

Deskripsi

<i>Lagerstroemia indica</i> is a widely used ornamental plant in summer gardens because of its desirable plant shape. The weeping traits of plants are related to secondary cell wall thickness and hormone signaling. NAC (NAM-ATAF1/2-CUC2), as one of the plant-specific transcription factors, is a switch for the secondary cell wall and also involved in leaf senescence, phytohormone signaling, and other growth processes. We identified a total of 21 <i>LiNAC</i> genes from the transcriptome data, which we divided into 14 subgroups and 2 groups. The physicochemical characteristics of amino acids, subcellular localization, transmembrane structure, GO and KEGG enrichment, and expression patterns were also examined. The qRT-PCR analysis showed that the expressions of <i>LiNAC8</i> and <i>LiNAC13</i> in upright <i>L. indica</i> ‘Shaoguifei’ and weeping <i>L. indica</i> ‘Xiariwuniang’ were significantly higher from the beginning to the end of growth stage (S1–S3), and the expressions of ‘Shaoguifei’ were always higher than those of ‘Xiariwuniang’. However, <i>LiNAC2</i> showed a downward trend in S1–S3 and the relative expression level of ‘Shaoguifei’ was lower than that of ‘Xiariwuniang’. It is hypothesized that these <i>LiNAC</i> genes may be involved in the regulation of weeping traits in <i>L. indica</i>. The results of this study provide a basis for analyzing the functions of <i>LiNAC</i> genes and help to explore the molecular regulatory mechanisms related to the weeping traits in <i>L. indica</i>.