Friday Five: Arabidopsis Thaliana (thale cress)

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Is great for study due to wide geographic regions it can grow, from Europe and Asia, to north-western Africa. This sepcies can be found in diverse habitats from rocky ground to dunes, from waste ground to railway lines.

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Arabidopsis thaliana is member of the mustard/cabbage family, which contains plants such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and rapeseed. Although if German scientist Friedrich Laibach had not suggested the thale cress as a model organism for study in 1943, the thale cress would have absolutely no use for humankind!

-3-

Was orginally thought to have the smallest genome (C-value) at 157 megabase pairs. This is small compared to Paris japonica that has a C-value of 148,880, but larger than Genlisea margaretae a carnivorous plant has a C-value of 63. However, it's still the model plant for scientific study.

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In 2000, became the first plant to have its genome fully sequence. This has provided insights into molecular processes that take place within cells.

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Arabidopsis thaliana was the first plant to go from germination to seed setting (whole life cycle) in space. This was conducted in 1997 on the Mir Space Station. Multigeneration studies have been taking place during 2015 trying to understand the effects of microgravity on plant growth.

-Bonus-

Resources:
. 2015. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/278.html. [Accessed 07 December 2015].
Kathy Willis, 2015. Plants: From Roots to Riches. First Edition Edition. John Murray.