Investigating the role of NF-Y transcription factors in the response to abiotic stresses between Vitis vinifera and Vitis amurensis

Abstract Nuclear factor Y transcription factors (TFs) play a crucial role in the response of plants to abiotic stresses. However, there is a lack of research on the comparative analysis of evolutionary relationship, real-time quantitative fluorescence PCR (RT-qPCR), and TFs functions of NF-Y TFs between Vitis vinifera (V. vinifera) and Vitis amurensis (V. amurensis). In this study, a total of 27 and 26 NF-Y TFs were identified in V. vinifera and V. amurensis, respectively, and were divided into 3 subgroups. Subcellular localization prediction revealed that the NF-Ys TFs were mainly located in the nucleus. Interestingly, the conserved five motif analysis showed that the NF-YB protein sequences were more conserved, whereas the amino acid sequences of NF-YA and NF-YC showed varying degrees of loss and gain in both species. Thus, these sequences may be closely related to the functions performed by grapevine. RT-qPCR analysis of ‘Pinot Noir’ and ‘Zuoyouhong’ plantlets demonstrated that the expression levels of VaNF-YA6, VaNF-YB5, VvNF-YA3, VvNF-YA5, and VvNF-YC2 were significantly upregulated under 400 mmol·L-1 NaCl and 10% PEG treatments. Consistently, subcellular localization showed that the VaNF-YA6-GFP fusion protein was functioned primarily in the nucleus. Overexpression of VaNF-YA6 in Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) can significantly enhance the tolerance to salt and drought stresses by activating antioxidant enzyme activities in Arabidopsis.