Scientific Name: Arabidopsis thaliana

Organism Facts:

• Small, flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard.
• Prolific seed producers with an average life cycle of 6 weeks.
• Useful for studying  factors that impact crop yields, such as drought stress and pest damage, because of their small size and short life cycle.
• Plant cells communicate with each other in much the same way that human cells do, making plants good models for understanding cell communication.

 Which UI Department of Biology researchers study this organism:

Chi-Lien Cheng

Erin Irish

Why UI Department of Biology researchers use this organism:

•  Understand how apomixis has evolved.
• Apomictic plants produce offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant without the use of cutting or grafting, which has great potential for use in plant breeding.