Oryza sativa Raw sequence reads. Oryza sativa

Rice (Oryza sativa) responds to various abiotic stresses during growth. Plant-specific NAM, ATAF1/2, and CUC2 (NAC) transcription factors (TFs) play an important role in controlling numerous vital growth and developmental processes. There are 170 NAC TFs in rice, but their roles remain largely unknown. Herein, we discovered that OsNAC006 is constitutively expressed, and regulated by H2O2, cold, heat, abscisic acid (ABA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellin (GA), NaCl, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 treatment . Furthermore, knockout of OsNAC006 using the CRISPR-Cas9 system showed that loss of OsNAC006 conferred drought and heat sensitivity. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) transcriptome analysis revealed that OsNAC006 regulates the expression of genes mainly involved responses to stimuli, oxidoreductase activity, cofactor binding, and membrane-related pathways. Our findings illuminate the important role of OsNAC006 in drought responses, and provide valuable information for genetic manipulation to enhance stress tolerance in future plant breeding programs.