1. NAC Protein Family Yosuke Ishida Yuya Hirai Timothy Schultz Ria Yagnik

2. 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 )

3. Structural Characteristics 5’UTR exon intron exon intron exon 3’UTR NAC domain TAR (transcription activation region) ATAF1 gene

4. 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

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

6. NAC Family Tree NAC family -->

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

8. 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. Root AM --> Shoot AM -->

9. 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

10. CUC - Cup Shaped Cotyledon Different types of CUC (CUC1, CUC2, etc) proteins result in different levels of differentiation

11. 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