Medicago truncatula
Medicago truncatula
Medicago Truncatula, also known as strong-spined medick, barresl medic or barresl medick.
Profile
| Name | Medicago Truncatula |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Plantae |
| Order | Fabales |
| Family | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily | Faboideae |
| Tribe | Trifolieae |
| Genus | Medicago |
| Species | M. truncatula |
| Origin | Mediterranean region |
Medicago truncatula is an intensely studied organism, whose genome has been published in 2003 according to phytozome.gov. Since then, genome annotation and the understanding of the organism has greatly increased and today, M. truncatula is a model organism for studying plant symbiosis with Rhizobia and especially the bacteria which we will use, Sinorhizobium meliloti. We will be using genetically modified S. melitoti to express a Yellow Fluorescent Protein (YFP) within the cell’s plasma. After the plants have been transferred to the medium, they will be inoculated with the bacteria, which will then start to engage in the symbiotic process. There are many things to account for. We will have to ensure our plants stay firmly inside the medium during take-off and landing, we have to account for their needs like nutrients, CO2, Nitrogen, and light, and most importantly we have to ensure that no bacteria or fungi contaminate and destroy our experiment since our eight plants is all we have for our analysis.
Fun facts
- M. truncatula has often a dark spot in the centre of its leaves. But it just forms with high light intensity. If the light is too low, there will be no spot. So, always keep them in proper light conditions!
