Thale cress facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Thale cress |
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Arabidopsis
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| Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh
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Arabidopsis thaliana is a small flowering plant that grows naturally in Europe, Asia, and parts of northwestern Africa. Even though it's tiny, it's a very important plant for scientists! They use it as a special "study buddy" to learn how plants work. This is why it's called a model organism. It's easy to grow and study in laboratories.
Arabidopsis belongs to the mustard family, called Brassicaceae. This family also includes many plants we eat, like cabbage and radish.
Contents
Why is Arabidopsis a "Model Plant"?
Scientists love Arabidopsis because it helps them understand plant genetics. Genetics is the study of how traits are passed down from parents to their children.
Its Genetic Secrets
Arabidopsis thaliana was the very first plant whose entire genome was mapped out. A genome is like a complete instruction book for building and running an organism. This amazing work was finished in the year 2000.
Scientists have spent a lot of time studying its 27,000 genes and 35,000 proteins. Genes are tiny instructions that tell a plant what to do. Proteins are like the tiny machines that carry out those instructions.
What Scientists Learn from It
By studying Arabidopsis, scientists learn about the molecular biology of plants. This means they discover how tiny molecules inside a plant make it grow and behave.
For example, they've learned a lot about:
- How flowers develop and grow.
- How plants sense light, a process called phototropism. This helps them know which way to grow towards the sun.
Because it's so well-understood, Arabidopsis helps scientists make discoveries that can be useful for other plants, including the ones we eat.
Images for kids
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Botanical illustration
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A close-up view of a trichome, which is a hair on an A. thaliana leaf. It's a unique structure made of a single cell.
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This shows an Arabidopsis plant with a special "double-flower" change. Scientists first wrote about this in 1873.
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This image shows how A. thaliana fights off tiny invaders like bacteria. It helps scientists understand plant health.
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See also
In Spanish: Arabidopsis thaliana para niños
