Phosphorylation of birch BpNAC90 improves the activation of gene expression to confer drought tolerance

The NAC transcription factors (TFs) play important roles in mediating abiotic stress tolerance; however, the mechanism is still not fully known. Here, an NAC gene (BpNAC90) from a gene regulatory network of Betula platyphylla (birch) that responded to drought was characterized. Overexpression and knockout of BpNAC90 displayed increased and reduced drought tolerance, respectively, relative to wild-type (WT) birch. BpNAC90 binds to different DNA motifs to regulate target genes in conferring drought tolerance, such as Eomes2, ABRE and Tgif2. BpNAC90 is phosphorylated by drought stress at Ser 205 by birch SNF1-related protein kinase 2 (BpSRK2A). Mutated BpNAC90 (termed S205A) with abolished phosphorylation, was transformed into birch for overexpression. The transgenic S205A plants displayed significantly reduced drought tolerance compared with plants overexpressing BpNAC90, but still showed increased drought tolerance relative to WT birch. At the same time, S205A showed a decreased capability to bind to motifs and reduced activation of target gene expression, which contributed to the reduced drought tolerance. Additionally, BpSRK2A and BpNAC90 can be induced by drought stress and form a complex to phosphorylate BpNAC90. The results together indicated that phosphorylation of BpNAC90 is necessary in conferring drought tolerance in birch.