An official website of the United States government
Abstract Arabidopsis thaliana is currently the most-studied plant species on earth, with an unprecedented number of genetic, genomic, and molecular resources having been generated in this plant model. In the era of translating foundational discoveries to crops and beyond, we aimed to highlight the utility and challenges of using Arabidopsis as a reference for applied plant biology research, agricultural innovation, biotechnology, and medicine. We hope that this review will inspire the next generation of plant biologists to continue leveraging Arabidopsis as a robust and convenient experimental system to address fundamental and applied questions in biology. We aim to encourage laboratory and field scientists alike to take advantage of the vast Arabidopsis datasets, annotations, germplasm, constructs, methods, and molecular and computational tools in our pursuit to advance understanding of plant biology and help feed the world's growing population. We envision that the power of Arabidopsis-inspired biotechnologies and foundational discoveries will continue to fuel the development of resilient, high-yielding, nutritious plants for the betterment of plant and animal health and greater environmental sustainability.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on March 1, 2026
Arabidopsis research in 2030: Translating the computable plant
SUMMARY Plants are essential for human survival. Over the past three decades, work with the reference plantArabidopsis thalianahas significantly advanced plant biology research. One key event was the sequencing of its genome 25 years ago, which fostered many subsequent research technologies and datasets. Arabidopsis has been instrumental in elucidating plant‐specific aspects of biology, developing research tools, and translating findings to crop improvement. It not only serves as a model for understanding plant biology and but also biology in other fields, with discoveries in Arabidopsis also having led to applications in human health, including insights into immunity, protein degradation, and circadian rhythms. Arabidopsis research has also fostered the development of tools useful for the wider biological research community, such as optogenetic systems and auxin‐based degrons. This 4th Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee Roadmap outlines future directions, with emphasis on computational approaches, research support, translation to crops, conference accessibility, coordinated research efforts, climate change mitigation, sustainable production, and fundamental research. Arabidopsis will remain a nexus for discovery, innovation, and application, driving advances in both plant and human biology to the year 2030, and beyond.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1750006
- PAR ID:
- 10620939
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Plant Journal
- Volume:
- 121
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0960-7412
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Telomere maintenance is a fundamental cellular process conserved across all eukaryotic lineages. Although plants and animals diverged over 1.5 billion years ago, lessons learned from plants continue to push the boundaries of science, revealing detailed molecular mechanisms in telomere biology with broad implications for human health, aging biology, and stress responses. Recent studies of plant telomeres have unveiled unexpected divergence in telomere sequence and architecture, and the proteins that engage telomeric DNA and telomerase. The discovery of telomerase RNA components in the plant kingdom and some algae groups revealed new insight into the divergent evolution and the universal core of telomerase across major eukaryotic kingdoms. In addition, resources cataloging the abundant natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana, maize (Zea mays), and other plants are providing unparalleled opportunities to understand the genetic networks that govern telomere length polymorphism and, as a result, are uncovering unanticipated crosstalk between telomeres, environmental factors, organismal fitness, and plant physiology. Here we recap current advances in plant telomere biology and put this field in perspective relative to telomere and telomerase research in other eukaryotic lineages.more » « less
-
Abstract The localization of a protein provides important information about its biological functions. The visualization of proteins by immunofluorescence has become an essential approach in cell biology. Here, we describe an easy‐to‐follow immunofluorescence protocol to localize proteins in whole‐mount tissues of maize (Zea mays) and Arabidopsis. We present the whole‐mount immunofluorescence procedure using maize ear primordia and Arabidopsis inflorescence apices as examples, followed by tips and suggestions for each step. In addition, we provide a supporting protocol to describe the use of an ImageJ plug‐in to analyze colocalization. This protocol has been optimized to observe proteins in 2‐5 mm maize ear primordia or in developing Arabidopsis inflorescence apices; however, it can be used as a reference to perform whole‐mount immunofluorescence in other plant tissues and species. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol: Whole‐mount immunofluorescence for maize and Arabidopsis shoot apices Support Protocol: Measure colocalization by JACoP plugin in ImageJmore » « less
-
Abstract Inducible protein knockdowns are excellent tools to test the function of essential proteins in short time scales and to capture the role of proteins in dynamic events. Current approaches destroy or sequester proteins by exploiting plant biological mechanisms such as the activity of photoreceptors for optogenetics or auxin-mediated ubiquitination in auxin degrons. It follows that these are not applicable for plants as light and auxin are strong signals for plant cells. We describe here an inducible protein degradation system in plants named E3-DART for E3-targeted Degradation of Plant Proteins. The E3-DART system is based on the specific and well-characterized interaction between the Salmonella secreted protein H1 (SspH1) and its human target protein kinase N1 (PKN1). This system harnesses the E3 catalytic activity of SspH1 and the SspH1-binding activity of the Homology Region 1b (HR1b) domain from PKN1. Using Nicotiana benthamiana and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), we show that a chimeric protein containing the Leucine-Rich Repeat (LRR) and novel E3 ligase (NEL) domains of SspH1 efficiently targets protein fusions of varying sizes containing HR1b for degradation. Target protein degradation was induced by transcriptional control of the chimeric E3 ligase using a glucocorticoid transactivation system and target protein depletion was detected as early as 3 h after induction. This system could be used to study the loss of any plant protein with high temporal resolution and may become an important tool in plant cell biology.more » « less
-
Summary Extant land plants consist of two deeply divergent groups, tracheophytes and bryophytes, which shared a common ancestor some 500 million years ago. While information about vascular plants and the two of the three lineages of bryophytes, the mosses and liverworts, is steadily accumulating, the biology of hornworts remains poorly explored. Yet, as the sister group to liverworts and mosses, hornworts are critical in understanding the evolution of key land plant traits. Until recently, there was no hornwort model species amenable to systematic experimental investigation, which hampered detailed insight into the molecular biology and genetics of this unique group of land plants. The emerging hornwort model species,Anthoceros agrestis, is instrumental in our efforts to better understand not only hornwort biology but also fundamental questions of land plant evolution. To this end, here we provide an overview of hornwort biology and current research on the model plantA. agrestisto highlight its potential in answering key questions of land plant biology and evolution.more » « less
