here - First Legume Society Conference (LSC1)

Book of Abstracts First Legume Society Conference 2013: A Legume Odyssey Novi Sad, Serbia, 9-11 May 2013
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Exploiting the European Medicago truncatula Tnt1 insertion mutant collection
Boglarka Olah 1 , Sandor Jenei 1 , Ernö Kiss 1 , Andrea Borbola 1 , Marianna Nagymihaly 2 , Hilda
Tiricz 2 , Rui Maria Lima 2 , Attila Kereszt 2 , Beatrix Horvath 3 , Agota Domonkos 3 , Pascal Ratet 4 ,
Gabriella Endre 1 , Peter Kalo 3
1 Biological Research Centre of HAS, Institute of Genetics, Szeged, Hungary
2 Biological Research Centre of HAS, Institute of Biochemistry, Szeged, Hungary
3 Agricultural Biotechnology Center, Gödöllö, Hungary
4 Institut des Siences du Vegetale, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
An insertion mutant collection based on the use of Tnt1 and MERE1 retroelements was
developed in the M. truncatula model legume (Tadege et al., 2009; Rakocevic et al., 2009) during
the EU GLIP project (www.eugrainlegumes.org) in parallel to another at the Noble Foundation
(http://bioinfo4.noble.org/mutant/). The use of such mutant collections is essential to reveal
gene functions and to uncover genetic interactions. In the case of the GLIP collection however,
only the construction of the mutant lines was financed, therefore only a limited number of
mutants were characterized despite the value of such characterized collections for the
community. Recently, a bilateral Hungarian-French collaborative project was launched to further
develop this specific genomic tool in M. truncatula and to facilitate the molecular characterization
of new loci involved in nodule and root development. One part of this project deals with the
isolation and description of symbiotic (Nod - , Fix - and Nod +++ ) mutants of this collection through
large symbiotic screens. The identified lines will subsequently be confirmed for their symbiotic
character, and the responsible mutated gene will be defined. Another important aim of the
project is to sequence the insertion sites of the Tnt1 copies and also those of the endogenous
MERE1 active retrotransposon in at least 2000 mutagenized lines and contribute to the Medicago
flanking sequence tag (FST) database to advance further reverse genetics screens. To achieve this
goal, the development of a high throughput sequencing method has been initiated.
Acknowledgements
Funded by bilateral Hungarian-French collaborative project (NFÜ grant TÉT_10-1-2011-0397 from the Hungarian
side).
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