Abstract:

The aim was to elucidate the transcriptional regulation mechanism of NY-YB proteins and their encoding genes from woody plants in drought resistance, the knowledge and tools of bioinformatics and PCR technology were used to clone a target sequence with 543 bp in length, named PeNF-YB1, from leave issues of Populus euphractica via reverse transcription approach, with the NF-YB homologue sequence in the genome of P. trichocarpa as reference. The protein encoded by the gene possessed a helix-loop-helix secondary structure, conserved domains and functional amino acids of NF-YB protein. The protein did not have a nuclear localization signal peptide. The gene was observed to be expressed in unclear field with GFP subcellular localization method. Under drought stress on P. euphratica imposed by PEG 6000 solution, the gene was observed to be an up-regulated expression in early stage of treatment, and a lagging down-regulated expression. The studies suggested that the cloned PeNF-YB1 gene is a member of plant NF-YB gene family and takes a regulative role in early drought response. The results of this study could not only verify the role of NF-YB in wood plants resistance to drought, but also provide a basic clue for elucidating regulation mechanism of tree resistance to drought.