Why not concentrate our research efforts and resources on a species that will actually provide food for our world or useful products for industrial uses? In order to make the strides necessary to increase crop production in a relatively short time, we have to be able to move forward quickly and spend the available human and financial resources as efficiently as possible.
This is the advantage of a model system: an organism that is easily manipulated, genetically tractable, and about which much is already known. By studying the biology of Arabidopsis, the model plant, we can gain comprehensive knowledge of a complete plant. In the laboratory, Arabidopsis offers the ability to test hypotheses quickly and efficiently. With the knowledge we gain from the model plant thus established as a reference system, we can move forward with research and rapidly initiate improvements in plants of economic and cultural importance.
One advantage offered to the plant researcher by Arabidopsis is its relatively small genome size. Many crop species have large genomes, often as a result of polyploidization events and accumulation of non-coding sequences during their evolution.
The large crop genomes pose challenges to the researcher, including difficulty in sequencing as well as in isolation and cloning of mutant loci. Authors Authors and affiliations R. Sivasubramanian Nitika Mukhi Jagreet Kaur. Keywords Arabidopsis thaliana Model organism Forward and reverse genetics Functional genomics Community resources Crop plants Plant biology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Science — PubMed Google Scholar. Tagging of stress-responsive genes.
Nature — PubMed Google Scholar. Bisson MM, Groth G New paradigm in ethylene signaling: EIN2, the central regulator of the signaling pathway, interacts directly with the upstream receptors. Mol Plant Pathol 11 2 — Development —20 PubMed Google Scholar. Bioinformatics — PubMed Google Scholar. Science — Google Scholar. Electrophoresis — PubMed Google Scholar.
Development —84 PubMed Google Scholar. Espinosa-Soto C, Padilla-Longoria P, Alvarez-Buylla ER A gene regulatory network model for cell-fate determination during Arabidopsis thaliana flower development that is robust and recovers experimental gene expression profiles. Trends Genet —93 Google Scholar. View of Arabidopsis thaliana [Back to top] History of Arabidopsis thaliana as a research organism. The earliest report of a mutant that I know of was in by A. Laibach first summarized the potential of Arabidopsis thaliana as a model organism for genetics in - he did some work on it much earlier though, publishing its correct chromosome number in The first collection of induced mutants was made by Laibach's student E.
Her thesis was submitted in , the work published in Veleminsky in Czechoslovakia and G. He wrote a more easily found one in Ann. Both go through some of the early history of the use of Arabidopsis in the laboratory, though the longer one has all the details. In Methods in Arabidopsis Research , eds C.
These accessions are quite variable in terms of form and development e. Researchers around the world are using these differences in natural accessions to uncover the complex genetic interactions such as those underlying plant responses to environment and evolution of morphological traits. NLR proteins: NLR nucleotide-binding domain leucine-rich repeat proteins function in plant effector triggered immunity.
Also denotes a family of proteins found subsequently to act in animal innate immunity. All NLR proteins share a similar three-domain architecture.
Photosynthate: A product of photosynthesis, that is, an energy-rich carbon-containing molecule most commonly a sugar. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria: Beneficial bacteria that enhance plant growth and biomass production and live in association with plant roots in natural environments.
Synanthropy: Occurrence of an organism in association with human settlement, where human activities directly or indirectly generate favorable environmental conditions for the organism. Ultramafic soils: Infertile, nutrient poor soils derived from so-called serpentine minerals, which are common in zones of tectonic activity.
The popularity of A. The ease and speed with which experiments can be conducted on A. The many uses of Arabidopsis as the universal reference plant continue to expand, particularly in the field of systems biology Brady et al.
Many of the traits that render A. Indeed, the natural history of A. Within these six evolutionary lineages, a number of phylogenetically as yet unresolved taxa have been described, as have auto- and allopolyploidization events see Glossary.
The divergence time of the common ancestor of these species and the A. Thus, divergence occurred immediately before or during the transition from a warm period to progressively colder climates, followed by rapid glacial cycles from 3 Mya until the latest glacial maximum about 18, years ago.
There has even been a natural allopolyploidization event between A. From left to right: A. The individuals shown here do not reflect the large within-species morphological diversity, particularly in leaf shape, among different accessions of A.
Work in recent years has increasingly emphasized the relevance of conducting experiments on A. This important development will benefit from a more detailed knowledge of the unique and shared features of its natural and evolutionary history, as well as of the natural environments that host populations of A.
Arabidopsis thaliana is recognized as native to Western Eurasia Figure 3. The species is a colonizer and pioneer plant of disturbed, poor, stony or shallow soils, and it can also be found in nutrient-poor, often sandy, meadow and forest habitats Mitchell-Olds and Schmitt, Similarly, the species closely related to A.
Sequence polymorphism data provide evidence for a historical expansion of the A. It has been suggested that A. There is also clear evidence for additional glacial refugia for A. This reflects an evolutionary history of vast climatic and environmental fluctuations, likely including a series of alternating phases of population size contraction and expansion with migration and admixture following glacial cycles Beck et al.
In the past few years, A. The present climatic and geographic range of A. Areas colored in red correspond to the continuous distribution of A.
This map is based on a partial map kindly provided by Matthias Hoffmann personal communication, November , with manual additions to the southern hemisphere Bresinsky et al. In addition to—and likely permitting—the rapid expansion of its range, A. Estimates place these transitions as having occurred, based on different approaches, at around 0. By contrast, most species closely related to A. In addition to selfing, A. Vegetative A.
The leaves of A. These morphological differences are likely to constitute adaptations to differing environments. By comparison to its sister group of species, the flowering of A. Seeds of A. These features of A.
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