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Arabidopsis

Arabidopsis

1 9.7
A small plant from the mustard family used in plant research
  • noun
  • /ˌærəˈbɪdɒpsɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : Arabidopsis
  • Scientists often use Arabidopsis as a model organism to study plant biology and genetics.
  • Arabidopsis thaliana
  • Arabidopsis gene

Examples

  • There are other candidate photoreceptors in Arabidopsis that look as if they feed into circadian pathways as well, says McClung.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Using this technology, scientists have been able to study expression patterns of Arabidopsis circadian mutants.

    Academic text (2005)
  • As before, most progress has been made in the non-crop model plant Arabidopsis, although this progress has been slow.

    Academic text (2010)
  • And we found that because the Arabidopsis genome has been fully sequenced, we can move this sort of science along quite quickly.

  • In 2001, scientists sequenced the genome of a plant named Arabidopsis thaliana.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Currently, Yang's studies are underway to understand the mechanisms responsible for storing or excluding nickel in Arabidopsis.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Plants and animals have many more genes than do simpler organisms: both Arabidopsis and people have about 25,000 genes, compared to the 3,000 in bacteria.

    Academic text (2006)
  • One-fourth of the pieces, or amino acids, that make up the protein from the Arabidopsis gene exactly match those produced by the TMV-resistance gene.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Peripheral oscillators in the weed Arabidopsis thaliana can also be entrained directly by light, through at least seven different photoreceptors, and probably more.

    Academic text (2005)
  • In addition, natural variation in Arabidopsis contributes to splicing changes in the proline synthesis enzyme (P5CS1) affecting drought-induced proline accumulation.

    Academic text (2017)

Compounds

Arabidopsis thaliana
  • Specialized
8.1

A small flowering plant in the mustard family used in labs to study plant genes and growth

Arabidopsis lyrata
  • Specialized
8.7

A small wild plant with white flowers often used in genetic studies

Surface Forms

Arabidopsis singular
Arabidopses plural

Morphology

Arabidopsis = Arabis (opaque) = arabid + opsis

A Latin/Greek botanical name formed from a genus name + the classical suffix '-opsis' and containing a connecting segment; the resulting scientific name is not transparently meaningful to average learners.

Etymology

Arabidopsis comes from the name of a related plant Arabis and the Greek part -opsis meaning 'appearance' or 'looks like'. So Arabidopsis means 'looks like Arabis', which helps you remember it is a small plant often used as a model in research.