Page "Botany" Paragraph 16

A considerable amount of new knowledge today is being generated from studying model plants like Arabidopsis thaliana.

This weedy species in the mustard family ( Brassicaceae ) was one of the first plants to have its genome sequenced.

The sequencing of the rice ( Oryza sativa ) genome, its relatively small genome, and a large international research community have made rice an important cereal / grass / monocot model.

Another grass species, Brachypodium distachyon is also an experimental model for understanding genetic, cellular and molecular biology.

Other commercially important staple foods like wheat, maize, barley, rye, pearl millet and soybean are also having their genomes sequenced.

Some of these are challenging to sequence because they have more than two haploid ( n ) sets of chromosomes, a condition known as polyploidy, common in the plant kingdom.

A green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, is a model organism that has proven important in advancing knowledge of cell biology.