The plant vascular tissue consists of phloem and xylem. Phloem transports nutrients such as amino acids and sucrose. Xylem functions in the conduction of water and minerals throughout the plant and also supports the plant body. One of the characteristic features of xylem cells is a secondary wall structure between plasma membrane and (primary) cell wall. Studies on differentiation of xylem cells have been considered a good model system for the analysis of cell differentiation in higher plants because there are several well-established in vitro induction systems, in which isolated cells or suspension cultured cells from various plants transdifferentiate into xylem cells (reviewed in Fukuda 1996(reviewed in Fukuda , 2004 Turner et al. 2007). Recent interest in biofuels has raised the possibility that a better understanding of xylem development can be utilized for the improvement of plant biomass, since major portions of wood, which represents one of important sources of woody biomass, is mainly composed of two types of xylem cells, xylem vessels and fiber cells. Moreover, main components of the secondary wall are polysaccharides, cellulose, and hemicellulose, which are expected to be good starting materials for the production of bioethanol and bioplastics.Transcription factors are proteins that have function in controlling the expression of target genes quantitatively, temporally, and spatially. To date, genetic analyses have revealed a number of transcription factors regulating vascular development (reviewed in Ariel et al. 2007;Carlsbecker and Helariutta 2005;Demura and Fukuda 2007). Moreover, reverse genetic approaches have been successful in isolating several NAC (which stands for NAM, ATAF1/2 and CUC2) domain transcription factors that control the specification of xylem cells accompanied by secondary wall formation. In this review, we summarize the function and regulation of the NAC domain proteins controlling secondary wall formation.VND/NST/SND1 subfamily of NAC domain proteins regulate secondary wall formation Previously, we established in vitro transdifferentiation systems, in which zinnia mesophyll cells and Arabidopsis suspension cells could synchronously transdifferentiate into tracheary elements at a high frequency. By using microarray analysis we identified a number of genes whose expression is elevated during the transdifferentiation processes (Demura et al. 2002;Kubo et al. 2005), including the following genes belonging to a subfamily of the NAC transcription factor family: zinnia Ze567 and Arabidopsis VND1 to VND7 (Figure 1). Abstract Woody cells develop secondary wall structure that mainly consists of polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicellulose) and lignin. These components are expected to be new sources of biofuels and biomaterials. Therefore, it is important to understand the molecular mechanism underlying secondary wall formation and how it contributes to plant biomass. Plant-specific NAC domain transcription factor family has been shown to be involved in diverse biological functions. Recen...