AUTHOR=Nguyen Kien Huu , Ha Chien Van , Watanabe Yasuko , Tran Uyen Thi , Nasr Esfahani Maryam , Nguyen Dong Van , Tran Lam-Son Phan 

TITLE=Correlation between differential drought tolerability of two contrasting drought-responsive chickpea cultivars and differential expression of a subset of CaNAC genes under normal and dehydration conditions

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=6

YEAR=2015

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2015.00449

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2015.00449

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Drought causes detrimental effect to growth and productivity of many plants, including crops. NAC transcription factors have been reported to play important role in drought tolerance. In this study, we assessed the expression profiles of 19 dehydration-responsive <italic>CaNAC</italic> genes in roots and leaves of two contrasting drought-responsive chickpea varieties treated with water (control) and dehydration to examine the correlation between the differential expression levels of the <italic>CaNAC</italic> genes and the differential drought tolerability of these two cultivars. Results of real-time quantitative PCR indicated a positive relationship between the number of dehydration-inducible and -repressible <italic>CaNAC</italic> genes and drought tolerability. The higher drought-tolerant capacity of ILC482 cultivar vs. Hashem cultivar might be, at least partly, attributed to the higher number of dehydration-inducible and lower number of dehydration-repressible <italic>CaNAC</italic> genes identified in both root and leaf tissues of ILC482 than in those of Hashem. In addition, our comparative expression analysis of the selected <italic>CaNAC</italic> genes in roots and leaves of ILC482 and Hashem cultivars revealed different dehydration-responsive expression patterns, indicating that <italic>CaNAC</italic> gene expression is tissue- and genotype-specific. Furthermore, the analysis suggested that the enhanced drought tolerance of ILC482 vs. Hashem might be associated with five genes, namely <italic>CaNAC02, 04, 05, 16,</italic> and <italic>24</italic>. <italic>CaNAC16</italic> could be a potential candidate gene, contributing to the better drought tolerance of ILC482 vs. Hashem as a positive regulator. Conversely, <italic>CaNAC02</italic> could be a potential negative regulator, contributing to the differential drought tolerability of these two cultivars. Thus, our results have also provided a solid foundation for selection of promising tissue-specific and/or dehydration-responsive <italic>CaNAC</italic> candidates for detailed <italic>in planta</italic> functional analyses, leading to development of transgenic chickpea varieties with improved productivity under drought.</p>