Comprehensive analysis of NAC domain transcription factor gene family in Vitis vinifera

Genome-wide identification of grapevine NAC domain genes and investigation of their chromosome locations, gene structures, duplication, evolution, phylogeny and expression profiles. Grapevine is a widely used fruit crop. NAC (NAM, ATAF1/2 and CUC2) domain genes are plant-specific transcription factors (TFs) that comprise a conserved NAM domain in the N-terminus. Members of this gene family have been reported to contribute to plant development. During this study, 74 NAC genes were identified from 12x assembled grapevine genomic sequences. The duplication patterns, genomic structures and phylogeny of these 74 grapevine NAC genes were investigated. To understand the roles of VvNAC during grapevine development, their expression profiles in different tissues including leaf, tendril, inflorescence, stem, root and veraison berry skin were tested using quantitative real-time PCR. Analysis revealed expression diversity of various VvNAC genes among different grapevine tissues. To identify candidate grapevine NAC genes with a role in response to stress, publicly available microarray data were obtained to calculate their expression change under abiotic and biotic treatments, with a number of VvNAC genes displaying up-regulation after stress induction. Therefore, this study has uncovered more knowledge relating to the gene structures, chromosome organizations, evolution, expression profiles and functions of VvNAC genes.