Why arabidopsis is a model plant

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WHY ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA USED AS A

MODEL PLANT ???

MBB 601: Advances in plant molecular biology: 3+0

Presented ByMr. Ekatpure Sachin

Department of Plant Biotechnology

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INTRODUCTION Arabidopsis thaliana also known as thale-cress or  mouse-

ear cress or arabidopsis

It is a member of Brassicaceae family

Grows as weed in many parts of world

 For a complex multicellular eukaryote

Except in role of model genetic organism it has no economic use

Number of variants were found called as ecotypes

That are vary in size, shape, physiological characters and DNA sequence

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INTRODUCTION CONT… Identified in the 16th century

1st mutant was reported in the year of 1873 by Alexander Braun, describing a double flower phenotype

In the year of 1980th the first genetic map of Arabidopsis was prepared

Now a days A. thaliana mostly used in the study of genome structure, gene regulation, development and evolution of plants

Also it provides the important basic information about plant genetics, that is applied to other economically important plants

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Advantages

Small genome

Small plant size

Short generation time i.e. 6 weeks

Each plant can produce the 10,000 to 40,000 seeds

It has ability to grow in the laboratory

Many variants are available

Ability to self fertilization and out cross

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GENOME

It having five pairs of chromosomes (2n=10)

found 125 million base pairs of DNA

18 % genes were common with human genome

Average gene size is about 200 bp

1st plant has done Complete genome were sequenced in year of 2000

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CONTRIBUTION IN THE GENETICS

A. thaliana majorly involved in the study of-

Plant Genome Organization

Gene Regulation

Genetics of plant development

Genetic of flowering

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STATS

Taxonomy: Flowering plant

Angiosperm

Size: 10 to 30 cm

Habitat: Meadows/ Grassland

Anatomy: Roots, flowers, Simple Leaves, One Primary shoot

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MAKING KNOCKOUT PLANTS

o It is easily susceptible to Agrobacterium which contain Ti plasmids, the vehicles for T-DNA insertion

o Easy to establish many knockout lines within short amount of time

o Basic life processes similar to those of more complex crop plants such as corn, soybean, and wheat

o It can be assumed that the basic set of genes that control these processes are the same, making findings applicable to other species

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ARABIDOPSIS TRANSFORMATION BY FLORAL DIPPING

Dipping Arabidopsis plants are

grown in pots until they start

flowering. Around 10/pot. Plants are

dipped In Agrobacterium

Culture plus sucrose Plus surfactant for

Up to 3 minutes

Seeds germinate

done medium containing selectable agent e.g. KanamycinPlants grown

for a Few more weeks to Allow

seed development.

Seeds collected.

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EXPRESSION IN DIPPED PLANTS OF MARKERS FOR PLANT GENE EXPRESSION PRESENT ON THE

T-DNA

Agrobacterium enters the developing flower and the T-DNA is introduced into the developing

female gametophyte, and transmitted Through the ovule to the next generation.

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SUMMARY

Arabidopsis is a useful model plant

Simple genome

Easy maintenance and space-efficient

Applicable similarities with other plants

It has a potential to help increase food production quantity and quality to feed a growing world population

Due to these overall applications makes Arabidopsis as a model plant organism

12Thank You