Calcium oxalate is the most abundant insoluble mineral found in plants and its crystals have been reported in more than 200 plant families. In the barrel medic Medicago truncatula Gaertn., these crystals accumulate predominantly in a sheath surrounding secondary veins of leaves. Mutants of M. truncatula with decreased levels of calcium oxalate crystals were used to assess the defensive role of ...

Molecular genetic studies suggest that FLORICAULA (FLO)/LEAFY (LFY) orthologs function to control compound leaf development in some legume species. However, loss-of-function mutations in the FLO/LFY orthologs result in reduction of leaf complexity to different degrees in Pisum sativum and Lotus japonicus. To further understand the role of FLO/LFY orthologs in compound leaf development in legume...

Class I KNOTTED-like homeobox (KNOXI) genes are critical for the maintenance of the shoot apical meristem. The expression domain of KNOXI is regulated by ASYMMETRIC LEAVES1/ROUGHSHEATH2/PHANTASTICA (ARP) genes, which are associated with leaf morphology. In the inverted repeat-lacking clade (IRLC) of Fabaceae, the orthologs of LEAFY (LFY) function in place of KNOXI to regulate compound leaf deve...

In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), the major MYB protein regulating proanthocyanidin (PA) biosynthesis is TT2, named for the transparent testa phenotype of tt2 mutant seeds that lack PAs in their coats. In contrast, the MYB5 transcription factor mainly regulates seed mucilage biosynthesis and trichome branching, with only a minor role in PA biosynthesis. We here characterize MYB5 and MYB14 ...

In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), the major MYB protein regulating proanthocyanidin (PA) biosynthesis is TT2, named for the transparent testa phenotype of tt2mutant seeds that lack PAs in their coats. In contrast, the MYB5 transcription factor mainly regulates seed mucilage biosynthesis and trichome branching, with only a minor role in PA biosynthesis. We here characterize MYB5 and MYB14 (...

C-function MADS-box transcription factors belong to the AGAMOUS (AG) lineage and specify both stamen and carpel identity and floral meristem determinacy. In core eudicots, the AG lineage is further divided into two branches, the euAG and PLE lineages. Functional analyses across flowering plants strongly support the idea that duplicated AG lineage genes have different degrees of subfunctionaliza...

Microsatellite (simple sequence repeats, SSRs) marker is one of the most widely used markers in marker-assisted breeding. As one type of functional markers, MicroRNA-based SSR (miRNA-SSR) markers have been exploited mainly in animals, but the development and characterization of miRNA-SSR markers in plants are still limited. In the present study, miRNA-SSR markers for Medicago truncatula (M. tru...

The Medicago truncatula N5 gene is induced in roots after Sinorhizobium meliloti infection and it codes for a putative lipid transfer protein (LTP), a family of plant small proteins capable of binding and transferring lipids between membranes in vitro. Various biological roles for plant LTP in vivo have been proposed, including defense against pathogens and modulation of plant development. The ...