Arabidopsis thaliana

Arabidopsis thaliana (/ərˌæbᵻˈdɒpsɪsˌθɑːliˈɑːnə/ thale cress, mouse-ear cress or arabidopsis) is a small flowering plant native to Eurasia. A. thaliana is edible by humans and, as with other mustard greens, is used in salads or sautéed, like many species in the Brassicacea. A. thaliana is considered a weed; it is found by roadsides and in disturbed lands. A winter annual with a relatively short life cycle, Arabidopsis is a popular model organism in plant biology and genetics. For a complex multicellular eukaryote, Arabidopsis thaliana has a relatively small genome of approximately 135 megabase pairs (Mbp). It was long thought to have the smallest genome of all flowering plants, but the smallest flowering plants' genomes are now considered to belong to plants in the genus Genlisea, order Lamiales, with Genlisea tuberosa, a carnivorous plant, showing a genome size of approximately 61 Mbp. Arabidopsis thaliana was the first plant to have its genome sequenced, and is a popular tool for understanding the molecular biology of many plant traits, including flower development and light sensing. In 2016, it was named as one of the organisms that would be involved in CRISPR-based genetic engineering.