Introduction to Arabidopsis Research Todays Goals l Describe

Introduction to Arabidopsis Research

Today’s Goals l Describe the life-cycle of A. thaliana. l Set-up a culture of Arabidopsis plants and grow them to adulthood l Examine examples of how Arabidopsis thaliana are used experimentally

Arabidopsis thaliana l Small flowering plant l Popular as a plant model organism n Plant l In Bio and Genetics the family of Brassicaceae n Mustard family

A. thaliana l Arabidopsis anatomy n www. greenomes. org l Arabidopsis Development n www. greenomes. org

As a model organism l Most commonly used plant model n l Like the fruit flies of the plant world Advantages: n n n n Small size - Max 5 cm in diameter, 30 cm tall Easy to cultivate - grown in small area Small genome (5 chromosomes, 157 million base pairs, 27, 000 genes) Rapid development - about 6 weeks to make mature seed Can self-pollinate Can perform crosses between different strains Many progeny Easy to perform genetic engineering l Can be transformed using Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Commonly Used to Study l Biotechnology l Light Applications sensing l Flower development

Commonly used related plant l Brassica rapa n Wisconsin Fast Plants n Can use in classroom VERY easily n Several mutant strains available n Book on how to work with them n www. fastplants. org

Research Projects l You may choose this organism for your research project l You may choose C. elegans l You may talk with me and choose something else

Resources l TAIR n n n l www. arabidopsis. org Free Mutant strains! Some have uncharacterized phenotypes in terms of their growth & dev. PREP website http: //www. prep. biotech. vt. edu/expinfo_an atomy. html n Suggestions for Experiments n l l Books in my office Brassica rapa - related plant -called “Wisconsin Fast Plants”

Example l. I am interested in investigating salt tolerance in arabidopsis mutants. l My approach is to compare plants with different T-DNA insertions ability to tolerate various concentrations of salt solutions l My Literature search should. . . ?

Our Arabidopsis lab l Learn to cultivate Arabidopsis in both soil and on agar plates n Choose 1 parameter to measure n Record in lab notebook n Prepare you for your independent projects

Each group of 3 l Make 1 bottle of 100 mls plant agar. l Make it in a 200 ml media bottle l Label it: n MS Agar n Date n Initials