Project description:Medicago truncatula (Medicago) flowering is promoted by winter cold (vernalization) followed by long day photoperiods (VLD). By analysing a Tnt1 insertion mutant and 17 CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited lines with delayed flowering, we identified INHIBITOR OF GROWTH (ING) 2 (MtING2) encoding a plant homeodomain (PHD) zinc finger and predicted H3K4me2/3 epigenome reader in Medicago. There are two ING genes in most plants, but their physiological role has not been described. Mting2 mutants had many developmental abnormalities including delayed flowering particularly in VLD, compact architecture, abnormal leaves with extra leaflets but no trichomes and smaller seeds and seed barrels. RNA-Seq experiments indicated that >7000 genes are mis-expressed in the Mting2 mutant consistent with its strong mutant phenotypes. Mting2 did not show reduced accumulation of the strong floral promoter FLOWERING LOCUS T-LIKE gene, MtFTa1, but did have increased expression of MtTFL1c, consistent with the delayed flowering of the mutant. ChIP-Seq analysis identified >5000 novel H3K4me3 locations in the genome of Mting2-1 mutant compared to wild type, which overlapped with some differentially expressed genes. Overall, our study has uncovered an important physiological role of a plant ING gene in development, flowering and gene expression, which likely involves an epigenetic mechanism.
Project description:Medicago truncatula (Medicago) flowering is promoted by winter cold (vernalization) followed by long day photoperiods (VLD). By analysing a Tnt1 insertion mutant and 17 CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited lines with delayed flowering, we identified INHIBITOR OF GROWTH (ING) 2 (MtING2) encoding a plant homeodomain (PHD) zinc finger and predicted H3K4me2/3 epigenome reader in Medicago. There are two ING genes in most plants, but their physiological role has not been described. Mting2 mutants had many developmental abnormalities including delayed flowering particularly in VLD, compact architecture, abnormal leaves with extra leaflets but no trichomes and smaller seeds and seed barrels. RNA-Seq experiments indicated that >7000 genes are mis-expressed in the Mting2 mutant consistent with its strong mutant phenotypes. Mting2 did not show reduced accumulation of the strong floral promoter FLOWERING LOCUS T-LIKE gene, MtFTa1, but did have increased expression of MtTFL1c, consistent with the delayed flowering of the mutant. ChIP-Seq analysis identified >5000 novel H3K4me3 locations in the genome of Mting2-1 mutant compared to wild type, which overlapped with some differentially expressed genes. Overall, our study has uncovered an important physiological role of a plant ING gene in development, flowering and gene expression, which likely involves an epigenetic mechanism.
Project description:A transcriptome analysis of developing abi5 and wild type (R108) seeds from Medicago truncatula was performed to decipher the role of ABI54 in the regulation of late seed maturation and seed longevity.
Project description:Plant pathogenic bacteria disseminate and survive through transmission to and by seeds of hosts and non-hosts plants. To investigate the interaction between xanthomonads and developing seeds of Medicago truncatula, plants at the flower bud stage were spray inoculated until runoff with xanthomonads suspensions. Using the Medicago NimbleGen chip, a transcriptomic analysis was performed on seeds to characterize the molecular dialogue between Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris in an incompatible situation with M. truncatula seeds and Xanthomonas alfalfae pv. alfalfae in a compatible situation at two developmental time points (16 and 32 days atfter pollination (DAP).