Despite their unrivalled value in livestock systems, certain temperate, pasture, legume species and varieties may contain phytoestrogens which can lower flock/herd fertility. Such compounds, whose chemical structure and biological activity resembles that of estradiol-17α, include the isoflavones that have caused devastating effects (some of them permanent) on the fertility of many Australian sh...

The seeds of Medicago disciformis and Medicago turbinata contain lectins for T or Th but not Tk or Tx red cell cryptantigens. Extracts of Medicago disciformis seeds are a useful addition to a panel of lectins used in the classification of red cell cryptantigens and of red cell polyagglutinability.

The genetic structure of populations of the symbiotic nitrogen-fixing soil bacterium Rhizobium meliloti was examined by analysis of electrophoretically demonstrable allelic variation in 14 metabolic, presumably chromosomal, enzyme genes. A total of 232 strains were examined, most of which were isolated from southwest Asia, where there is an unsurpassed number of indigenous host species for R. m...

In most southern provinces of Iran, Soil Salinity is a growing problem particularly in the irrigated agricultural areas and has been found to reduce crop yields. In order to investigate the role of pod removal in seed germination, seedling growth and antioxidant enzymes activity in annual medics (Medicago scutella L.) under salinity stress conditions, a factorial experiment was conducted at Col...

Nodules are unique organs formed on roots of legumes by soil-borne bacteria, collectively known as rhizobium. Recently, we have shown that orthologs of the AINTEGUMENTA-like (AIL) AP2 transcription factors PLETHORA (PLT) 1 to 4, that redundantly regulate Arabidopsis thaliana root development are involved in root and nodule growth in Medicago truncatula. Hence, it is conceivable that rhizobium h...

We have identified an active Medicago truncatula copia-like retroelement called Medicago RetroElement1-1 (MERE1-1) as an insertion in the symbiotic NSP2 gene. MERE1-1 belongs to a low-copy-number family in the sequenced Medicago genome. These copies are highly related, but only three of them have a complete coding region and polymorphism exists between the long terminal repeats of these differe...