An Overview of Arabidopsis Thaliana

Known as the Wall Cress or Mouse-Ear Cress, this is a Lab Favorite

Jul 24, 2009

Discover why this weed is the model plant in the field of plant biotechnology, and some of the benefits that sequencing its genome has brought.

Arabidopsis thaliana is a flowering plant (weed) known as the model plant for plant biotechnology. Its genome has been fully sequenced, it is fast growing and easy to grow, and is small in size. Its common names are Wall Cress or Mouse-Ear Cress and Arabidopsis belongs to the mustard (Brassicaceae) family.

The Arabidopsis genome was fully sequenced in 2000 but the plant has been considered a model plant for quite some time. Segments of other plants, such as rice (Oryza sativa), barley (Hordeum vulgare) and maize (Zea mays) have been sequenced but none have had their entire genomes sequenced as Arabidopsis has. A. thaliana is a small plant which is beneficial for growing in restrictive laboratory spaces, and the plant has prolific seed production.

Overview of Arabidopsis thaliana

A single plant produces thousands of seeds and it is possible to grow hundreds of plants in a small pot and screen several thousand seedlings in a Petri dish. Microscopically, Arabidopsis shows tissue and organs composed of fewer cells than larger plants. All of this makes the ‘weed’ an easy plant to work with. It also has a large number of mutant lines and is fast-growing. It takes approximately 6 weeks from germination to mature seed. Knowing mutant lines makes it possible for insertion of particular traits, for example seed dormancy.

The Current Taxonomy of Arabidopsis

Kingdom: Viridiplantae

Phylum: Streptophyta

Order: Brassicales

Family: Brassicaceae

Genus: Arabidosis

Species: thaliana

There are over 750 natural accessions for Arabidopsis, which basically means a difference in the plants form and development (leaf shape or hairiness), or physiology (flowering time, disease resistance). They are used to understand genetic interactions and plant responses to environment.

Why Sequence Plant Genes?

Now that the Arabidopsis genome has been sequenced, it is hoped that research findings from Arabidopsis studies can be transferred to agricultural and horticultural plants. It is thought that Arabidopsis will be useful for studying root bacterial behaviour and effects as well as be used to genetically engineer certain favorable traits in plants, such as herbicide or insect resistance, timing of flower or fruit production or fruit size and shape (Kenneth et al., 2001, Arabidopsis thaliana: a model for studies of colonization by non-pathogenic and plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria, Australian Journal of Plant Physiology, vol. 28, pp. 975-982).

Arabidopsis as a model plant has been particularly useful for biotechnology. In addition to its small genome and fast growth, and despite its small size, it does share much of its homology (similarities based on common descent) with higher level plants, making research into finding a gene of interest and transferring that to a crop or horticultural plant incredibly beneficial.

For more information on Arabidopsis visit The Arabidopsis Information Resource website.