Recently, the research group led by Professor Niu Yiding from the MOE Key Laboratory of Forage and Featured Crop Biology at Inner Mongolia University uncovered a new mechanism of drought escape in leguminous forage crops. By leveraging their established genetic transformation system for Medicago truncatula, and combining techniques such as Southern blot, Western blot, yeast one-hybrid assays, and dual-luciferase activity assays, the team elucidated the molecular pathway through which the ERF072 gene regulates drought-induced early flowering in Medicago truncatula.

The study found that ERF072 can directly regulate the floral development gene MtSOC1-like, enabling the plant to accelerate flowering under drought stress as a survival strategy.

The research paper, titled:
“The ERF072 Transcription Factor Directly Regulates MtSOC1-like Expression and Mediates Drought-Accelerated Flowering in Medicago truncatula,”
was recently published in Plant, Cell & Environment, a top-tier international journal in plant science (SCI Q1, CAS ranking: top).