Arabidopsis Thaliana

Arabidopsis Thaliana is used mainly as a model plant system to study both plant physiology and genomics. This is because it is a small plant, easily maintained and easy to get many generations going because they take a few weeks to grow and is found ubiquitously.

Another fact that may make Arabidopsis an excellent model plant is the ease with which it is transformed with Agrobacterium tumafaciens. No necessity tissue culture like the other plants, no heat shock treatment or electroporation or gene gun - just a simple dip into a solution containing sucrose and a surfactant called Silwet-77. This makes it easy to perform genetic manipulations with the organism as well.

A quick search through the internet reveals that many researchers use Arabidopsis to study the physiology of the plant and even as a model for higher plants (trees). Researchers have also been able to use the arabidopsis as a model for the study of human physiology and this new era of proteomics.

There are many sites about arabidopsis and I am certainly not qualified to say anymore than I already have. You can learn more about this plant at this arabidopsis site.