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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.
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This content will become publicly available on September 30, 2026
Guns in rosettes: The Arabidopsis chemical weapons arsenal
Abstract Arabidopsis thaliana (hereafter Arabidopsis) is a small plant with a fast generation time and a well-annotated genome, which makes it ideal for research labs. It is arguably the most used model species in basic plant sciences. Over the past half century, studies in Arabidopsis have generated enormous insight into fundamental principles of plant life, ranging from mechanistic molecular biology to the complexities of interacting ecosystems. Based on research in Arabidopsis, we now understand that while basic cellular metabolism is generally conserved across species, variation in specialized metabolite enzymes gives rise to complex bouquets of chemical weapons that are tightly interwoven with the environment. Understanding how these are produced, regulated, and—especially—how they are deployed remains a key research area for plant immunity. The breadth of work in Arabidopsis provides a unique window into this complicated aspect of life as a plant. We are happy to have an opportunity to share our common interest in these aspects in this review. Due to space constraints, we focus on compounds produced by Arabidopsis with demonstrated antimicrobial properties. We hope that this focus (despite our eagerness to write more) will inspire new avenues of research that will contribute to a more complete understanding of immunity.
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- PAR ID:
- 10651092
- Publisher / Repository:
- Plant Physiology
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Plant Physiology
- Volume:
- 199
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0032-0889
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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