Abstract
Since extreme environmental events are expected to increase with climate change, identifying candidate genes for stabilizing the protein composition of legume seeds or optimizing it in a given environment is increasingly important. To elucidate the genetic determinants of seed protein plasticity, major seed proteins from 200 ecotypes of M. truncatula grown in four contrasting environments were quantified after one-dimensional electrophoresis. The plasticity index of theseproteins was recorded for each genotype as the slope of Finlay and Wilkinson's regression and used for Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS), enabling the identification of candidate genes determining this plasticity. This list was enriched in genes related to transcription, DNA repair, and signal transduction, many of them being stress-responsive. Other over-represented genes were related to sulfur and aspartate family pathways leading to the synthesis of the nutritionally essential amino acids methionine and lysine. By placing these genes in metabolic pathways, and using a M. truncatula mutant impaired in regenerating methionine from S-methylmethionine, we discovered that methionine recycling pathways are major contributors to globulin composition establishment and plasticity. These data provide a unique resource of genes that can be targeted to mitigate negative impacts of environmental stresses on seed protein composition.