Abstract
NAC family, plant specific transcription factors (TF), is composed of more than 100 genes in Arabidopsis. In this study, we analyzed function of NAC TF systematically using CRES-T system, in which a TF fused with a repression domain was expressed in plant. We found that some plants expressing the NAC chimeric repressor showed various phenotypes. Among them, we focused on NST1 whose chimeric repressor induced indehiscent anther due to the loss of secondary wall thickenings (SWT) in anther endocecium. The plant expressing the chimeric NST2 repressor or the double T-DNA tagged line of NST1 and NST2 also showed the indehiscent phenotype. On the other hand, over-expression of NST1 or NST2 induced ectopic SWT in various tissues. The promoter activities of NST1 and NST2 were observed in tissues where SWT occurred. We will discuss the mechanism that regulates SWT in various tissues and the possible function of another related gene NST3.
