NAC Protein Family Yosuke Ishida Yuya Hirai Timothy

NAC Protein Family Yosuke Ishida Yuya Hirai Timothy Schultz Ria Yagnik

General Info Three different genes • NAM (no apical meristem) • ATAF (Arabidopsis transcription activation factor) • CUC (cup-shaped cotyledon) have conserved domain =NAC domain(from first letters of each genes )

Structural Characteristics 5’UTR exon intron NAC domain exon 3’UTR TAR (transcription activation region) ATAF 1 gene

General Info (con’t) NAC proteins are thought to be involved in developmental processes: • Formation of shoot apical meristem (SAM) • Floral organs • Lateral shoots • Plant hormonal control/defense mechanisms • Programmed cell death

Bio-informatics analysis • Arabisopsis Thaliana has 135 NAC coding genes. • Plant specific

NAC Family Tree NAC family -->

NAM Sub-Family • How NAM Works • “The Domino Effect” • Consider the Family

What is the “Apical Meristem” • Def: Stem-cell tissue at the tip of the shoot or root that divides, and is responsible for increasing the plant’s length. Shoot AM --> Root AM -->

CUC - Cup Shaped Cotyledon • CUC function – Required for boundary formation in Arabidopsis – Loss of protein results in fusion of young leaves - they do not differentiate

CUC - Cup Shaped Cotyledon • Different types of CUC (CUC 1, CUC 2, etc) proteins result in different levels of differentiation

The Big Picture • NAC family proteins contain a large number of genes(135) that code for extremely important in plant development • Due to their natural redundancy, however, it is difficult to find a single knockout that causes a significant phenotypic mutation