The rice OsNAC6 transcription factor orchestrates multiple molecular mechanisms involving root structural adaptions and nicotianamine biosynthesis for drought tolerance

Summary Drought has a serious impact on agriculture worldwide. A plant's ability to adapt to rhizosphere drought stress requires reprogramming of root growth and development. Although physiological studies have documented the root adaption for tolerance to the drought stress, underlying molecular mechanisms is still incomplete, which is essential for crop engineering. Here, we identified OsNAC6‐mediated root structural adaptations, including increased root number and root diameter, which enhanced drought tolerance. Multiyear drought field tests demonstrated that the grain yield of OsNAC6 root‐specific overexpressing transgenic rice lines was less affected by drought stress than were nontransgenic controls. Genome‐wide analyses of loss‐ and gain‐of‐function mutants revealed that OsNAC6 up‐regulates the expression of direct target genes involved in membrane modification, nicotianamine (NA) biosynthesis, glutathione relocation, 3′‐phophoadenosine 5′‐phosphosulphate accumulation and glycosylation, which represent multiple drought tolerance pathways. Moreover, overexpression of NICOTIANAMINE SYNTHASE genes, direct targets of OsNAC6, promoted the accumulation of the metal chelator NA and, consequently, drought tolerance. Collectively, OsNAC6 orchestrates novel molecular drought tolerance mechanisms and has potential for the biotechnological development of high‐yielding crops under water‐limiting conditions.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Plant Biotechnology Journal

• Publication date

  2017-01-04

• Fields of study

  Agricultural and Food Sciences, Medicine, Biology, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1111/pbi.12673PMID 27892643PMCID 5425393
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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