Genetic determinants of seed protein plasticity in response to the environment in Medicago truncatula

As the frequency of extreme environmental events is expected to increase with climate change, identifying candidate genes for stabilizing the protein composition of legume seeds or optimizing this in a given environment is increasingly important. To elucidate the genetic determinants of seed protein plasticity, major seed proteins from 200 ecotypes of Medicago truncatula grown in four contrasting environments were quantified after one-dimensional electrophoresis. The plasticity index of these proteins was recorded for each genotype as the slope of Finlay and Wilkinson's regression and then used for genome-wide association studies (GWASs), enabling the identification of candidate genes for d…