Comprehensive analysis of pathogen-responsive wheat NAC transcription factors: new candidates for crop improvement

Abstract Wheat NAC (TaNAC) transcription factors are important regulators of stress responses and developmental processes. This study proposes a new TaNAC nomenclature and identified defense-associated TaNACs based on analysis of RNA-seq datasets of wheat tissue infected with major fungal pathogens. A total of 146 TaNACs were pathogen-responsive, of which 52 were orthologous with functionally characterized defense-associated NACs from barley, rice, and Arabidopsis, as deduced via phylogenetic analysis. Next, we focused on the phylogenetic relationship of the pathogen-responsive TaNACs and their expression profiles in healthy and diseased tissues. Three subfamilies (‘a’, ‘e’ and ‘f’) were significantly enriched in pathogen-responsive TaNACs, of which the majority were responsive to at least two pathogens (universal pathogen response). Uncharacterized TaNACs from subfamily ‘a’ enriched with defense-associated NACs are promising candidates for functional characterization in pathogen defense. In general, pathogen-responsive TaNACs were expressed in at least two healthy organs. Lastly, we showed that the wheat NAM domain is significantly divergent in sequence in subfamilies ‘f’, ‘g’ and ‘h’ based on HMMER and motif analysis. New protein motifs were identified in both the N- and C- terminal parts of TaNACs. Three of those identified in the C-terminal part were linked to pathogen-responsiveness of the TaNACs and two were linked to expression in grain tissue. Future studies should benefit from this comprehensive in silico analysis of pathogen-responsive TaNACs as a basis for selecting the most promising candidates for functional validation and crop improvement.