SCREENING OF MEDICAGO TRUNCATULA COLLECTIONS BASED ON TNT1 MUTAGENESIS

Medicago truncatula is a main model system for legume species. Genomic tools have become increasingly available in the last years, with the genome sequence being fairly advanced. In particular transposon (Tnt1) based mutant collections are available both in Europe and USA (Ratet et al., 2007; Porceddu et al., 2008; Tadege et al, 2008) . We have established one of the mentioned mutant collection (approximately 2000 R0 plants) which is progressively being screened in forward for visual characters and for the presence of secondary compounds (tannins, saponines). We will report on a few remarkable mutants concerning plant development with a particular emphasis on a mutant that is hampered in leaf abscission. In addition we have performed a screening for the presence of condensed tannins in the leaves/trichomes for about 9000 plants (approximately 12 progenies of 800 R0 lines), whose majority belongs to the collection of the Noble Foundation in USA. We have isolated mutants which are negative for the presence of tannins in the glandular trichomes and we are currently characterizing them