Today, I read two interesting new papers. Both of them are about NAC.

The ABI4-Induced Arabidopsis ANAC060 Transcription FactorAttenuates ABA Signaling and Renders Seedlings Sugar Insensitive when Presentin the Nucleus  http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1004213

1)     ANAC060 is involved in sugar signaling.

2)     ANAC060 is differently spliced in two naturalvariation ecotypes.

Contribution of NAC Transcription Factors to Plant Adaptation to Land

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2014/03/19/science.1248417.full.pdf

The development of cells specialized for water conduction orsupport is a striking innovation of plants that has enabled them to colonizeland. The NAC transcription factors regulate differentiation of these cells invascular plants. However, the path by which plants with these cells haveevolved from those of their non-vascular ancestors is unclear. We investigatedgenes of the moss Physcomitrella patensthat encode NAC proteins. Loss-of-function mutants formed abnormalwater-conducting and supporting cells, as well as malformed sporophyte cells,and overexpression induced ectopic differentiation of water-conducting-likecells. Our results show conservation of transcriptional regulation and cellularfunction between moss and Arabidopsis thalianawater-conducting cells. The conserved genetic basis suggests roles for NACproteins in the adaptation of plants to land.