The Effect of Drought Stresses, Fusarium Culmorum and Heterodera Filipjevi and their Interactions on the Expression Pattern of Transcription Factor Gene NAC69-3 in Bread Wheat

Small grain cereals such as wheat, are affected by types of destructive environmental factors such as abiotic and biotic stresses that severely reduce crop yields. To cope with these conditions, transcription factors cause plant resistance to these stresses by activating or suppressing the expression of genes involved in the resistance responses. In the present study, the transcription factor NAC69-3 gene expression pattern was investigated.

 To determine and select resistance genes to biotic and abiotic stresses, Triticum aestivum microarray data at the NCBI GEO site were reviewed and the NAC69-3 transcription factor was selected for laboratory confirmation. two wheat cultivars SBP-CL16 (resistant to fungus) and Silverstar (resistant to nematode)  were under drought, Fusarium culmorum, and Heterodera filipjevi, and their simultaneous stress conditions. sampling was performed three times 24 h, 48 h, and 7 days after stress. Real-time PCR reactions were performed using specific primers of the NAC69-3 gene to investigate the expression pattern.

This study showed a significant increase in the NAC69-3 gene relative expression at most treatments compared to the control in both wheat cultivars. Fungus-resistant cultivar (SBP-CL16) under fungus stress showed a higher increase in expression than nematode stress, while in nematode-resistant cultivar (Silverstar)  high expression was observed under nematode stress conditions. Also, under simultaneous stresses conditions, the C69-3 gene has a higher expression level than the application of each stress separately.

 NAC transcription factors are usually induced by multiple stresses, so maybe manipulation of these multiple stress-responsive genes will provide the opportunity to produce the multiple stress tolerance plants with high yields.