NAC Protein Family Yosuke Ishida Yuya Hirai Timothy Schultz Ria Yagnik

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 )

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

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

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

NAC Family Tree NAC family -->

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

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 -->

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

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

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