The plant-specific NAC transcription factors control various biological processes, including plant development and stress responses. We have isolated an ANAC032 gene, one of the NAC transcription factor family, which was highly activated by multi-abiotic stresses, including high salt and drought in Arabidopsis. Here, we generated transgenic plants constitutively expressing ANAC032 and its knockout to identify the functional roles of ANAC032 in Arabidopsis under abiotic stress responses. The ANAC032-overexpressing plants showed enhanced tolerance to salinity and drought stresses. The anac032 knockout mutants were observed no significant changes under the high salt and drought conditions. We also monitored the expression of high salt and drought stress-responsive genes in the ANAC032 transgenic plants and anac032 mutant. The ANAC032 overexpression upregulated the expression of stress-responsive genes, RD29A and ERD10, under the stresses. Thus, our data identify that transcription factor ANAC032 plays as an enhancer for salinity and drought tolerance through the upregulation of stress-responsive genes and provides useful genetic traits for generating multi-abiotic stress-tolerant forage crops.

ABSTRACT
Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION
Ⅱ. MATERIALS AND METHODS
    1. Plant materials and stress treatments
    2. Generation of ANAC032-overexpressing plants andanac032 knockout mutants
    3. Determination of total chlorophyll
    4. Gene expression analysis
Ⅲ. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
    1. Generation and phenotypic analysis ofANAC032-overexpressing plants and anac032knockout mutants
    2. ANAC032-overexpression enhanced salinity anddrought tolerance
    3. Overexpression of ANAC032 activates theupregulation of high salt and drought stressresponsiveRD29A and ERD10 genes
Ⅳ. CONCLUSION
Ⅴ. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ⅵ. REFERENCES

• Netty Ermawati(Department of Agricultural Production and Central Laboratory for Biosciences, State Polytechnic of Jember)
• Sang Gon Kim(Gyeongnam Anti-Aging Research Institute)
• Joon-Yung Cha(Dvision of Applied Life Science (BK21 four), Research Institute of Life Sciences, Gyeongsang National University) Corresponding Author
• Daeyoung Son(Department of Plant Medicine, Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Gyeongsang National University) Corresponding Author