Abstract:

A NAC transcription factor（TF）（Genbank accession number:MDP0000334047）was
cloned from Malus × domestica‘Royal Gala’. Sequence analysis showed that the ORF of the MdNAC143
was 924 bp，which encoded 308 amino acids. It was predicted that the molecular mass of this protein was
35.59 kD and the pI was 6.32. Analysis of functional domain showed that the MdNAC143 protein included
about the conserved NAC domain. The results of yeast two-hybrid showed that the full length and
C-terminal of MdNAC143 had transcriptional activation activity. qRT-PCR analysis showed that the
MdNAC143 gene was generally expressed in all tissues of apple and the expression was significantly
higher in leaves and flowers. Meanwhile，the expression of MdNAC143 was induced by salt stress.
Finally，salt-tolerance assay indicated that overexpression of MdNAC143 remarkably increased the
tolerance of transgenic apple callus to high salinity.

Key words: apple, MdNAC143, gene expression, transcriptional activation, salt stress