Jerome Verdier

Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Shanghai Plant Stress Center

Desiccation tolerance (DT) is one of the most important processes that seeds need to acquire during seed maturation because it will ensure survival until seeds have favourable conditions for germinating. Moreover, in the current climate warming context, heat stress and its impact on seed maturation and quality has been increasingly studied by the s...

Seed maturation comprises important developmental processes, such as seed filling and the acquisition of seed germination capacity, desiccation tolerance, longevity, and dormancy. The molecular regulation of these processes is tightly controlled by the LAFL transcription factors, among which ABSCISIC ACID INSENSITIVE 3 (ABI3) was shown to be involv...

Although RNA sequencing has been becoming the main transcriptomic approach in the model legume Medicago truncatula, there is currently no genome-wide gene expression atlas covering the whole set of RNAseq data published for this species. Nowadays, such tool is highly valuable to provide a global view of gene expression in a wide range of conditions...

Legume seeds are an important source of proteins, minerals, and vitamins for human and animal diets and represent a keystone for food security. With climate change and global warming, the production of grain legumes faces new challenges concerning seed vigor traits that allow the fast and homogenous establishment of the crop in a wide range of envi...

This study aimed to set a computer-integrated multichannel spectral imaging system as a high-throughput phenotyping tool for the analysis of individual cowpea seeds harvested at different developmental stages. The changes in germination capacity and variations in moisture, protein and different sugars during twelve stages of seed development from 1...

Although RNA sequencing has been becoming the main transcriptomic approach in the model legume Medicago truncatula , there is currently no genome-wide gene expression atlas covering the whole set of RNAseq data published for this species. Nowadays, such tool is highly valuable to provide a global view of gene expression in a wide range of condition...

Seed development needs the coordination of multiple molecular mechanisms to promote correct tissue development, seed filling, and the acquisition of germination capacity, desiccation tolerance, longevity, and dormancy. Heat stress can negatively impact these processes and upon the increase of global mean temperatures, global food security is threat...

Background During maturation seeds acquire several physiological traits to enable them to survive drying and disseminate the species. Few studies have addressed the regulatory networks controlling acquisition of these traits at the tissue level particularly in endospermic seeds such as tomato, which matures in a fully hydrated environment and does...

Seed development needs the coordination of multiple molecular mechanisms to promote correct tissue development, seed filling and the acquisition of germination capacity, desiccation tolerance, longevity and dormancy. Heat stress can negatively impact these processes and upon the increasing of global mean temperatures, global food security is threat...

Grain legumes are highly valuable plant species, as they produce seeds with high protein content. Increasing seed protein production and improving seed nutritional quality represent an agronomical challenge in order to promote plant protein consumption of a growing population. In this study, we used the genetic diversity, naturally present in Medic...

Seed vigor is an estimate of how successfully a seed lot will establish seedlings under a wide range of environmental conditions, with both the embryo and the surrounding endosperm playing distinct roles in the germination behaviour. Germination and seedling establishment are essential for crop production to be both sustainable and profitable. Seed...

Legumes are important crop species as they produce highly nutritious seeds for human food and animal feed. In grain legumes, sub-optimal conditions affect seed developmental timing leading to impairment of seed quality traits acquired during seed maturation. To understand the molecular mechanisms of heat stress response in legume seeds, we analysed...

In the current context of food security and increase in plant protein demand, legumes have an important role in facing challenges of climate change. With the recent improvement of sequencing technologies and the emergence of new knowledge related to plant epigenetic regulation in response to developmental and environmental changes, legume epigeneti...

Background During maturation seeds acquire several physiological traits to enable them to survive drying and disseminate the species. Few studies have addressed the regulatory networks controlling acquisition of these traits at the tissue level particularly in endospermic seeds such as tomato, which matures in a fully hydrated environment and does...

Background During maturation seeds acquire several physiological traits to enable them to survive drying and disseminate the species. Few studies have addressed the regulatory networks controlling acquisition of these traits at the tissue level particularly in endospermic seeds such as tomato, which matures in a fully hydrated environment and does...

Seed dormancy and timing of its release is an important developmental transition determining the survival of individuals, populations, and species in variable environments. Medicago truncatula was used as a model to study physical seed dormancy at the ecological and genetics level. The effect of alternating temperatures, as one of the causes releas...

Seed dormancy and timing of its release is important developmental transition determining the survival of individual as well as population and species. We used Medicago truncatula as model to study legume seed dormancy in ecological and genomics context. The effect of oscillating temperatures as one of the dormancy release factor was tested over th...

Physiological seed quality comprises several seed characteristics related to seed and seedling performances such as high germination rate, rapid germination, homogenous germination, and long storability of mature seeds. All these seed quality traits are tightly related to the capacity of seeds to properly develop and reach maturity and, therefore,...

In the current context of food security, increasing 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 establishm...

Legumes are indispensable as food for us, feed for our livestock, and as a major contributor towards sustainable agricultural practices. Seed development, and root nodule symbiosis in legumes are the two main areas where majority of research is focused. Though Arabidopsis thaliana is a plant model with huge publicly-available resources, a model for...

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) is a major crop for worldwide food and nutritional security, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa, that is resilient to hot and drought‐prone environments. An assembly of the single‐haplotype inbred genome of cowpea IT97K‐499‐35 was developed by exploiting the synergies between single molecule real‐time sequencing,...

Background The traditional methods for evaluating seeds are usually performed through destructive sampling followed by physical, physiological, biochemical and molecular determinations. Whilst proven to be effective, these approaches can be criticized as being destructive, time consuming, labor intensive and requiring experienced seed analysts. Thu...

Cowpea ( Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) is a major crop for worldwide food and nutritional security, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, that is resilient to hot and drought-prone environments. A high-quality assembly of the single-haplotype inbred genome of cowpea IT97K-499-35 was developed by exploiting the synergies between single molecule real-tim...

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) is an important grain legume of the semi-arid tropics, mainly used for its protein rich seeds. To link the genome sequence information with agronomic traits resulting from specific developmental processes, a Cajanus cajan gene expression atlas (CcGEA) was developed using the Asha genotype. Thirty tissues/organs representin...

Legume seeds are important as protein and oil source for human diet. Understanding how their final seed size is determined is crucial to improve crop yield. In this study, we analyzed seed development of three accessions of the model legume, Medicago truncatula, displaying contrasted seed size. By comparing two large seed accessions to the referenc...

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 establish...

Legume research and cultivar development are important for sustainable food production, especially of high-protein seed. Thanks to the development of deep-sequencing technologies, crop species have been taken to the front line, even without completion of their genome sequences. Black-eyed pea (Vigna unguiculata) is a legume species widely grown in...

Figure S1 Phylogenetic analysis of MtPAR and related MYB transcription factors Figure S2 Anthocyanin chromatograms in different transgenic Medicago truncatula hairy root lines over‐expressing MtPAR and GUS (control). Figure S3 Flavonoid chromatograms in different transgenic Medicago truncatula hairy root lines overexpressing MtPAR and GUS (contro...

MtPAR is a proanthocyanidin (PA) biosynthesis regulator; the mechanism underlying its promotion of PA biosynthesis is not fully understood. Here, we showed that MtPAR promotes PA production by a direct repression of biosynthesis of isoflavones, the major flavonoids in legume, and by redirecting immediate precursors, such as anthocyanidins, flux int...

Summary MtPAR is a proanthocyanidin (PA) biosynthesis regulator; the mechanism underlying its promotion of PA biosynthesis is not fully understood. Here, we showed that MtPAR promotes PA production by a direct repression of biosynthesis of isoflavones, the major flavonoids in legume,and by redirecting immediate precursors, such as anthocyanidins, flu...

Seed longevity, the maintenance of viability during storage, is a crucial factor for preservation of genetic resources and ensuring proper seedling establishment and high crop yield. We used a systems biology approach to identify key genes regulating the acquisition of longevity during seed maturation of Medicago truncatula. Using 104 transcriptome...

Background Transposable elements constitute an important part of the genome and are essential in adaptive mechanisms. Transposition events associated with phenotypic changes occur naturally or are induced in insertional mutant populations. Transposon mutagenesis results in multiple random insertions and recovery of most/all the insertions is critic...

Distance analysis of DOF proteins.

Position of the EMS mutation and of the Tnt1 insertions within the DASH sequence.

Genetic and molecular analysis of the dash mutants.

IAA dosage on pods of NF5285 versus WT from 8 to 12 DAP.

List of the 96 DOF protein sequences used to compute the distance analysis in Figure S2.

Expression of DASH in different plant organs and in seed tissues.

Delay in embryo growth in NF5285 mutant seeds.

Complementation of EMS109 mutant.

Microscopic observations of embryo and endosperm at 8 DAP from WT (a, c) and EMS109 (b, d) seeds.

List of differentially expressed genes at 8 DAP in dash pods compared to WT.

List of differentially expressed genes belonging to the “auxin” functional class.

The endosperm plays a pivotal role in the integration between component tissues of molecular signals controlling seed development. It has been shown to participate in the regulation of embryo morphogenesis and ultimately seed size determination. However, the molecular mechanisms modulating seed size are still poorly understood especially in legumes...

Lotus japonicus is widely used as a model species for legume biology. The rapid growth of transcriptomic data available for this species represents an asset for the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying different processes of legume development. In this chapter, we review the history of L. japonicus transcriptomic studies before focusing...

Lotus japonicus is widely used as a model species for legume biology. The rapid growth of transcriptomic data available for this species represents an asset for the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying different processes of legume development. In this chapter, we review the history of L. japonicus transcriptomic studies before focusing...

In seeds, desiccation tolerance (DT) and the ability to survive the dry state for prolonged periods of time (longevity) are two essential traits for seed quality that are consecutively acquired during maturation. Using transcriptomic and metabolomic profiling together with a conditional-dependent network of global transcription interactions, we dis...

Building accurate gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from high-throughput gene expression data is a long-standing challenge. However, with the emergence of new algorithms combined with the increase of transcriptomic data availability, it is now reachable. To help biologists to investigate gene regulatory relationships, we developed a web-based computa...

The PCA plot for the major organs (flower, leaf, nodule and root) for Medicago dataset. We selected samples from same tissues but carried out by different labs for these four organs and removed control probesets, then, PCA on probesets were performed. The sample names used in PCA are: Flower, Flower 12 wk, Leaf, Leaf GUS-ox, Leaf IRG1 R108, Nod 14...

Predicted regulons according to co-expression network. Predicted regulons in seed development with related annotations, Pearson correlation coefficient values and functional annotations according to Arabidopsis homology. (XLS)