Effect of Temperature and ABA Exposure on LlaNAC Expression in Transformed Tobacco Plants

NAC is one of the largest TF families in plants, with more than 100 genes per plant. NAC proteins are involved in a panorama of functions in a cell, virtually controlling the growth and development of the plants, as well as, protecting the plants against variety of stresses. We have assessed LlaNAC over-expressor (transgenic) tobacco lines (NC2, NC7b, NC10 and NC18), which were earlier displayed enhanced cold tolerance, biomass, growth and early maturity [1] in comparison to the WT. Here we report, enhanced level of relative transcript abundance in LlaNAC transformed plants to cope with heat stress together with the activation of antioxidant enzymes. The transgenic plants showed maximum of nearly two fold elevations in LlaNAC expression when exposed to temperature stress of 40°C. Exposure to ABA (10 µM) caused upregulation of LlaNAC gene with an elevation of upto 1.45 fold while, higher concentration of ABA (50 µM) renders transgenic plants hypersentive to ABA treatments as compared to wild type plants (WT).