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In the current context of food security, increase of plant protein production in a sustainable manner represents one of the major challenges of agronomic research, which could be partially resolved by increased cultivation of legume crops. Medicago truncatula is now a well-established model for legume genomic and genetic studies. With the establishment of genomics tools and mutant populations in M. truncatula, it has become an important resource to answer some of the basic biological questions related to plant development and stress tolerance. This review has an objective to overview a decade of genetic studies in this model plant from generation of mutant populations to nowadays. To date, the three biological fields, which have been extensively studied in M. truncatula, are the symbiotic nitrogen fixation, the seed development, and the abiotic stress tolerance, due to their significant agronomic impacts. In this review, we summarize functional genetic studies related to these three major biological fields. We integrated analyses of a nearly exhaustive list of genes into their biological contexts in order to provide an overview of the forefront research advances in this important legume model plant.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.01175 | DOI Listing |
JCI Insight
September 2025
Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States of America.
Cardiac hypertrophy is a common adaptation to cardiovascular stress and often a prelude to heart failure. We examined how S-palmitoylation of the small GTPase, Ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (Rac1), impacts cardiomyocyte stress signaling. Mutation of the cysteine-178 palmitoylation site impaired activation of Rac1 when overexpressed in cardiomyocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
September 2025
Life Science Center for Survival Dynamics, Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-8577, Japan.
All organisms are exposed to various stressors, which can sometimes lead to organismal death, depending on their intensity. While stress-induced organismal death has been observed in many species, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanisms of stress-induced organismal death in the fruit fly .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
September 2025
Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202.
Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are highly compartmentalized neurons whose long axons serve as the sole connection between the eye and the brain. In both injury and disease, RGC degeneration occurs in a similarly compartmentalized manner, with distinct molecular and cellular responses in the axonal and somatodendritic regions. The goal of this study was to establish a microfluidic-based platform to investigate RGC compartmentalization in both health and disease states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
September 2025
Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India.
Agonist-induced interaction of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) with β-arrestins (βarrs) is a critical mechanism that regulates the spatiotemporal pattern of receptor localization and signaling. While the underlying mechanism governing GPCR-βarr interaction is primarily conserved and involves receptor activation and phosphorylation, there are several examples of receptor-specific fine-tuning of βarr-mediated functional outcomes. Considering the key contribution of conformational plasticity of βarrs in driving receptor-specific functional responses, it is important to develop novel sensors capable of reporting distinct βarr conformations in cellular context.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
September 2025
Centre for Experimental Medicine & Rheumatology, William Harvey Research Institute and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, United Kingdom.
MS4A4A belongs to the MS4A tetraspan protein superfamily and is selectively expressed by the monocyte-macrophage lineage. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the role of MS4A4A+ macrophages in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) pathogenesis and response to treatment. RNA sequencing and immunohistochemistry of synovial samples from either early treatment-naïve or active chronic RA patients showed that MS4A4A expression positively correlated with synovial inflammation.
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