Biotech Updates

NAC17 Confers Drought Tolerance in Rice thru Lignin Accumulation

August 10, 2022

Experts from Seoul National University (SNU) revealed the role of rice transcription factor NAC17 in drought tolerance. Their findings are reported in Plant Science.

Land plants have evolved to have a complex mechanism to deal with drought stress, which is controlled by multifaceted signaling networks, which include transcriptional regulation. Thus, the SNU researchers characterized the function of OsNAC17, a member of the NAC transcription factor family, in drought tolerance.

When OsNAC17 was over-expressed, the plants exhibited tolerance to drought; while knocking it out led to susceptibility to drought stress. Further analyses revealed that OsNAC17 controls the genes involved in lignin formation in leaves and roots. These findings imply that OsNAC17 contributes to drought tolerance through lignin production in rice.

Read more findings in Plant Science.


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