BnNAC485 is involved in abiotic stress responses and flowering time in Brassica napus

• BnNAC485 could enhance tolerance to abiotic stress.
• BnNAC485 could cause hypersensitivity to exogenous ABA.
• Flowering time of transgenic lines was earlier.
• Expression pattern of some abiotic- or ABA-responsive in transgenic lines changed.
• Expression pattern of some circadian clock genes changed in transgenic lines changed.

NAC domain proteins are plant-specific transcription factors that play important roles in plant growth and development. In this present study, we isolated BnNAC485 from Brassica napus L. (cv. HuYou15) and found that it showed high homology (84% at the amino acid level) with a NAC protein called AtRD26/ANAC072. BnNAC485 was specifically expressed in cotyledons and leaves of young seedlings, and expression was induced by abiotic stress and abscisic acid (ABA) treatment. The BnNAC485 protein localized to the nucleus. Over-expression of BnNAC485 enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress compared with wild-type plants in both B. napus and Arabidopsis thaliana. Furthermore, under exogenous ABA stress, BnNAC485 over-expression lines showed hypersensitivity to this treatment compared with wild-type B. napus and A. thaliana plants. Moreover, exogenous ABA treatment enhanced stomatal closing in B. napus plants over-expressing BnNAC485. Real-time RT-PCR assays showed that some abiotic- or ABA-responsive genes were up-regulated in A. thaliana plants over-expressing BnNAC485. Additionally, the transgenic lines flowered earlier than the wild-type B. napus and A. thaliana plants and the expression patterns of certain circadian clock genes were found to have changed. These results suggest that BnNAC485 acts in response to abiotic stress in plants via an ABA-mediated pathway and this gene can also alter plant flowering time.