In: Biology
List three advantages of using Arabidopsis thaliana as model organism.
Arabidopsis thaliana is a weed found in europe, asia and africa. It is also known as rockress or thale cress. It is a popular model organism for plant studies.
1. A. thaliana is easy to look after compared with animal model organisms. This plant can grow quickly, it produces many very small seeds, it has a small genome of aproximately114.5 Mb and is genetically well characterised.
2. It is a member of the Brassicaceae family which consist of important cultivated species such as cabbage, mustard and radish. So A. thaliana is widely used in plant experiments, genetics and evolution that helped to know more about germinaion and aspects of growth that are important for commercial crops.
3. When A. thaliana is exposed to Agro bacterium tumifaciens lead to formation of efficient transformation vector. This amkes A thaliana a versatile model organism for use in the biology laboratory. A. thaliana has even become a model organism for the study of the biochemical and molecular processes involved in human diseases.