This is Important

Arabidopsis thaliana

  • it’s amazing that this is a blog about plants
  • but there has yet to be a post about Arabidopsis
  • it’s a flowering plant native to Europe, Asia, and Northwestern Asia
  • and is considered a weed
  • it usually grows in side walk cracks and disturbed tracts of land
  • so why is this organism interesting in the slightest?
  • because, since 1945 it has been used as a model organism for plant sciences
  • this is the mouse of the plant world
  • the number of published papers that used Arabidopsis as a study system is overwhelmingly large
  • it’s used in evolution, genetics, and plant development research
  • there are ever so many questions that can be answered by studying this one plant
  • what makes it so useful?
  • the fact that the genome of Arabidopsis is only 135 base pairs long and only contains five chromosome pairs
  • allows it to take the title of smallest plant genome
  • humans for example have a genome constructed of about 3 billion base pairs and 23 chromosome pairs
  • that’s quite a difference
  • the succinct nature of the Arabidopsis genome makes it efficient for genetic mapping, manipulation, and sequencing
  • the lifecycle of the plant is also extremely short
  • it can reach maturity in as little as six weeks
  • each individual plant also produces a huge amount of seeds, making it easy to propagate generation after generation
  • it is also quite small even at a mature stage
  • no enormous incubators necessary

Arabidopsis is a dream for plant scientists. This organism informs the search for effective genetic modification in crop species, allows us to do small scale plant evolution experiments in lab settings, and shows us how plant gene expression works on the whole. Research done on Arabidopsis does not only apply to Arabidopsis. Discoveries made through the lens of this plant can be expanded upon and can lead to discoveries in the functionality of other plants as well. Everything is connected somehow, we just have to start looking in the most convenient place for answers first and then build from there.

Sources

“Human Genome Project Completion: Frequently Asked Questions.” Human Genome Project Completion: Frequently Asked Questions. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2016. <https://www.genome.gov/11006943>.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabidopsis_thaliana?oldformat=true>.