Medicago truncatula (barrel medic)
Overview
Medicago truncatula, native to the Mediterranean region, is a member of the galegoid (cool-season legume) clade within the legume sub-family Papilionoideae. Among many other features, its small diploid genome has made it a model system for legume biology. It is also an important forage crop species in Australia. Its sister species (M. sativa) i.e. alfalfa is the most important forage legume crop worldwide and 3rd most valuable crop in USA ($8 billion per annum).
Of Special Interest
See the LIS genome browser, and the browser at JCVI, hapmap resources at medicagohapmap.org, and maps and comparisons via the LIS maps page.
| NCBI taxon | 3880 | |
| GRIN taxon | 23705 | |
| Nodulation type | Indeterminate | |
| Flowering type | Long Day | Flowers are yellow, produced singly or in a small inflorescence of 2-5 together. |
| Mating system | Predominately Inbreeding |
Nodulators
| Species | NCBI Taxon ID |
|---|---|
| Sinorhizobium medicae | 110321 |
| Sinorhizobium meliloti | 382 |
| arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi |
Genome Summary
M. truncatula has a small diploid genome. The euchromatic (gene-rich) portion of Medicago truncatula subspecies truncatula cultivar A17 (Jemalong) has been sequenced BAC by BAC (Sanger) and partially supplemented with an assembly of Illumina/Solexa short paired-end reads.
| Chromosomes | 2n = 16 | |
| Genome size | 470 (Mbp) | Bennett MD, Leitch IJ. Royal Botanical Gardens angiosperm DNA C-values database (release 7.0, Dec. 2010) |
| GC content genome | ~35% | |
| Chloroplast genome size | 124 (kbp) | 124,033 bp M. truncatula chloroplast, complete genome. GI:17570783, PLN 15-APR-2009 |
| Chloroplast NCBI accession number | NC_003119 |
Resources
| 1a. Assembly: genomic (pseudomolecules) | Build version 3.5.1 | Linkout » |
| 1b. Assembly: genomic (BACs) | 2,533 BACs | Linkout » |
| 1c. Assembly: transcript | Gene index at DFCI | Linkout » |
| 1d. Assembly: transcript | Transcript assembly at JCVI | Linkout » |
| 2a. Annotation: protein coding genes | Formats: fasta, MIPS-GFF, TIGR-XML | Linkout » |
| 2b. Annotation: transposable elements | Format: MIPS-GFF | Linkout » |
| 3a. Genome browser: gene focus | GBrowse at JCVI based on builds 3.0 and 3.5.1 | Linkout » |
| 3b. Genome browser: comparative focus | GBrowse at LIS based on build 3.5.1 | Linkout » |
| 3c. Genome browser: SNPs & haplotype focus | GBrowse at Medicago HapMap based on build 3.0 | Linkout » |
| 4a. Genetic map & markers | markers: cM position, associated BAC, primers | Linkout » |
| 4b. Genetic map & markers | NCBI map viewer | Linkout » |
| 5a. Gene expression | Gene expression atlas (MtGEA) | Linkout » |
| 5b. Gene expression | Affymetrix - GeneChip® Medicago Genome Array | Linkout » |
| 5c. Gene expression | TRUNCATULIX at Bielefeld DE | Linkout » |
| 6. STS | BAC end sequences | Linkout » |
Reference Data
Selected References
Current publications on Medicago truncatula at PubMed.
Zhai J, Jeong DH, De Paoli E, Park S, Rosen BD, Li Y, González AJ, Yan Z, Kitto SL, Grusak MA, Jackson SA, Stacey G, Cook DR, Green PJ, Sherrier DJ, Meyers BC. MicroRNAs as master regulators of the plant NB-LRR defense gene family via the production of phased, trans-acting siRNAs. Genes Dev. 2011 Dec 1;25(23):2540-53.
Young ND, Debellé F, Oldroyd GE, Geurts R, Cannon SB, Udvardi MK, Benedito VA, Mayer KF, Gouzy J, Schoof H, Van de Peer Y, Proost S, Cook DR, Meyers BC, Spannagl M, Cheung F, De Mita S, Krishnakumar V, Gundlach H, Zhou S, Mudge J, Bharti AK, Murray JD, Naoumkina MA, Rosen B, Silverstein KA, Tang H, Rombauts S, Zhao PX, Zhou P, Barbe V, Bardou P, Bechner M, Bellec A, Berger A, Bergès H, Bidwell S, Bisseling T, Choisne N, Couloux A, Denny R, Deshpande S, Dai X, Doyle JJ, Dudez AM, Farmer AD et al. The Medicago genome provides insight into evolution of rhizobial symbiosis. Nature 2011; Nov 16. doi: 10.1038/nature10625. [Epub ahead of print]
Wang F, Dong Q, Jiang H, Zhu S, Chen B, Xiang Y. Genome-wide analysis of the heat shock transcription factors in Populus trichocarpa and Medicago truncatula. Mol Biol Rep 2011 May 29. [Epub ahead of print]
Henckel K, Küster H, Stutz LJ, Goesmann A. MediPlEx - a tool to combine in silico & experimental gene expression profiles of the model legume Medicago truncatula. BMC Res Notes 2010; 3: 262.
Cheng X, Wen J, Tadege M, Ratet P, Mysore KS. Reverse genetics in Medicago truncatula using Tnt1 insertion mutants. Methods Mol Biol 2011; 678: 179-90.
He J, Benedito VA, Wang M, Murray JD, Zhao PX, Tang Y, Udvardi MK. The Medicago truncatula gene expression atlas web server. BMC Bioinformatics 2009; 10: 441.
Benedito VA, Li H, Dai X, Wandrey M, He J, Kaundal R, Torres-Jerez I, Gomez SK, Harrison MJ, Tang Y, Zhao PX, Udvardi MK. Genomic inventory and transcriptional analysis of Medicago truncatula transporters. Plant Physiol 2010; 152: 1716-30.
Lelandais-Brière C, Naya L, Sallet E, Calenge F, Frugier F, Hartmann C, Gouzy J, Crespi M. Genome-wide Medicago truncatula small RNA analysis revealed novel microRNAs and isoforms differentially regulated in roots and nodules. Plant Cell 2009; 21: 2780-96.
Young ND, Udvardi M. Translating Medicago truncatula genomics to crop legumes. Curr Opin Plant Biol 2009; 12: 193-201.
Bertioli DJ, Moretzsohn MC, Madsen LH, Sandal N, Leal-Bertioli SC, Guimarães PM, Hougaard BK, Fredslund J, Schauser L, Nielsen AM, Sato S, Tabata S, Cannon SB, Stougaard J. An analysis of synteny of Arachis with Lotus and Medicago sheds new light on the structure, stability and evolution of legume genomes. BMC Genomics 2009; 10: 45.
Hougaard BK, Madsen LH, Sandal N, de Carvalho Moretzsohn M, Fredslund J, Schauser L, Nielsen AM, Rohde T, Sato S, Tabata S, Bertioli DJ, Stougaard J. Legume anchor markers link syntenic regions between Phaseolus vulgaris, Lotus japonicus, Medicago truncatula and Arachis. Genetics 2008; 179: 2299-312.
Wang H, Liu JS. LTR retrotransposon landscape in Medicago truncatula: more rapid removal than in rice. BMC Genomics 2008; 9: 382.
Benedito VA, Torres-Jerez I, Murray JD, Andriankaja A, Allen S, Kakar K, Wandrey M, Verdier J, Zuber H, Ott T, Moreau S, Niebel A, Frickey T, Weiller G, He J, Dai X, Zhao PX, Tang Y, Udvardi MK. A gene expression atlas of the model legume Medicago truncatula. Plant J 2008; 55: 504-13.