A common F-box gene regulates the leucine homeostasis of Medicago truncatula and Arabidopsis thaliana.

The F-box domain is a conserved structural protein motif that most frequently interacts with the SKP1 protein, the core of the SCFs (SKP1-CULLIN-F-box protein ligase) E3 ubiquitin protein ligases. As part of the SCF complexes, the various F-box proteins recruit substrates for degradation through ubiquitination. In this study, we functionally characterized an F-box gene (MtF-box) identified earlier in a population of Tnt1 retrotransposon-tagged mutants of Medicago truncatula and its Arabidopsis thaliana homolog (AtF-box) using gain- and loss-of-function plants.

Different functions of the histone acetyltransferase HAC1 gene traced in the model species Medicago truncatula, Lotus japonicus and Arabidopsis thaliana.

In eukaryotes, histone acetyltransferases regulate the acetylation of histones and transcription factors, affecting chromatin structural organization, transcriptional regulation, and gene activation. To assess the role of HAC1, a gene encoding for a histone acetyltransferase in Medicago truncatula, stable transgenic lines with modified HAC1 expression in the model plants M. truncatula, Lotus japonicus, and Arabidopsis thaliana were generated by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and used for functional analyses.

Helix-loop-helix/basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor network represses cell elongation in Arabidopsis through an apparent incoherent feed-forward loop.

Cell elongation is promoted by different environmental and hormonal signals, involving light, temperature, brassinosteroid (BR), and gibberellin, that inhibit the atypical basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor INCREASED LEAF INCLINATION1 BINDING bHLH1 (IBH1). Ectopic accumulation of IBH1 causes a severe dwarf phenotype, but the cell elongation suppression mechanism is still not well understood. Here, we identified a close homolog of IBH1, IBH1-LIKE1 (IBL1), that also antagonized BR responses and cell elongation.

Recent Progress in Development of Tnt1 Functional Genomics Platform for Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus in Bulgaria.

Legumes, as protein-rich crops, are widely used for human food, animal feed and vegetable oil production. Over the past decade, two legume species, Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus, have been adopted as model legumes for genomics and physiological studies. The tobacco transposable element, Tnt1, is a powerful tool for insertional mutagenesis and gene inactivation in plants.