Question

Most of the major issues that are facing the world today—such as renewable energy, food security, and climate change—relate back to plants. Hunger and malnutrition are urgent problems for many poor countries, yet plant biologists in wealthy nations have focused most of their research efforts on Arabidopsis thaliana. Some people have argued that if plant biologists are truly concerned about fighting world hunger, they should study cassava and plantain because these two crops are staples for many of the world’s poor. How do you respond to this argument? In your response, explain what Arabidopsis is and why it is commonly used.

Answer 1

Hunger and malnutrition are no doubt urgent problems for many poor countries,yet plant biologists focus to resarch on A.thaliana and not on growing more cassava and plantain crops.This is becuase it very important to find out and study the disease resistance mechanims in plants so that they can overcome pathogen infection and research on A.thalians serves this purpose very well..No matter how much crops you plant,until these plants remain healthy and have proper growth till they are harvested, they will not be of any use and will not be edible.The cassave and plantain crops are often infected by whiteflies that transmit deadly viruses that cause rotting of the roots from inside.Research on A.thaliana research helps to study the mechanism of plant-pathogen resistance so that the cassave ,palntain and many other such crops can be protected effectively from pathogen infection.Growing more plants is not important but growing disease resistant ,healthy plants are important that can serve people across the globe and increase the world's food production thereby succeeding in eracdication of hunger and malnutrition from many poor countries.

Arabidopsis is a flowering plant that is native to Eurasia and Africa.It is small in size ,usually a type of weed that grows by on a disturbed land or along roadside.It is commonly used because it serves as a plant model to study plant biology ,genetics and specific defense mechanims involved in plant pathogen resistance which would help researchers to understand how plants achieve the resistance characteristics so that it would become easier to protect the plants from pathogen infection ,thereby increasing the world's food production.