esearchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati and Gifu
University reported that overexpression of unique cowpea
NACgenesenhanced growth and seed yield in Arabidopsis. Their study is
published in/Plant Science/.

NAC proteins are one of the biggest groups of plant transcription
factors (TFs) that are involved in diverse complex biological processes.
ATAF-like NAC TFs have been found to control stress-signaling. However,
overexpression of these TFs often leads to growth-retardation. To search
for ways to harmonize regulation of stress and growth signaling, the
researchers isolated/VuNAC1/and/VuNAC2/from a drought-hardy cowpea
genotype and overexpressed them in Arabidopsis.

The transgenic lines exhibited tolerance to drought, salinity, and metal
toxicity under favorable conditions and as well as under limited
nutrition. Furthermore, it was found that/VuNAC1/2/balances growth and
stress tolerance by improving photosynthetic activity, stomatal density,
and ABA-insensitivity, unlike their growth-inhibiting orthologs.

Based on the findings,/VuNAC1/2/is a potential tool for improving stress
tolerance and yield without compromising growth and development.

Overexpression of cowpea NAC transcription factors promoted growth and
stress tolerance by boosting photosynthetic activity in Arabidopsis -
ScienceDirect
<[www.sciencedirect.com];