Plant studied by ck

It is always a good idea to perform a newly establish research by using model organism, for instance drosophila, mice in animal science, and Arabidopsis thaliana in plant biology. It is belongs to the family of Brassicaceae or mustard family. Arabidopsis thaliana (A-ra-bi-dóp-sis tha-li-á-na; thale cress, mouse-ear cress or Arabidopsis) is a small dicotyledonous and it is closely related to such economically important crop plants as turnip, cabbage, broccoli, and canola. Anyway, Arabidopsis thaliana is not economically importance as compare with its family members, but the following characteristic makes it become valuable in plant science research.

• Small genome (114.5 Mb/125 Mb total) has been sequenced in the year 2000
• Extensive genetic and physical maps of all 5 chromosomes
• A rapid life cycle (about 6 weeks from germination to mature seed).
• Prolific seed production and easy cultivation in restricted space.
• Efficient transformation methods utilizing Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
• A large number of mutant lines and genomic resources
• Multinational research community of academic, government and industry laboratories.

To date, scientists have used it to study various physiological or biochemical aspects in (disease resistance, plant hormoney, enviromental response, commercial application, i.e. improved crops and so on.)

The following pictures show plant I used in my research. Finally, I hope these "kids" can reveal their hidden story to me, especially what're their feeling after I "torture" (applying abiotic stress) them. haha, pls pls pls... ////:-)

references:

The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR), at http://arabidopsis.org/index.jsp

Arabidopsis, The Model Plant, The National Science Foundation, USA. at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/bio0202/model.htm

Arabidopsis cultivated by ck, such a great "performance", no contamination in 2 batches, it is never been easy for me to pippete each individual seed, (total 8 seeds per plate, size as small as sesame) from a pool of sterilised seeds

after 14 days of germination, grow too fast already, because "lui beng" like me accidentally placed first batch plants to long bright day growth room, haha, what to do?! so many growth rooms.., so they deveploped faster than expected, long and fine root, with ck's sexy, smooth, charming, fair fingers holding on it, hehe

one of my tasks, transfer plant from solid media to hydroponic solution. Again, it's never been easy to get into a hole without formal training, really not easy to put each individual "tiny" plant + long root into such a small hole, because got some "hidden power", maybe due to surface tension or viscoscity by liquid nutrient, so root tends to "move aside" / shaking when i attempted to place it in.

I spent 8hrs to remove >200 plants from agar and placed to hydroponic solution...."*%&$^&..

Place tape to make hole smaller (invention from cklim, haha) and hang the plant properly. Otherwise it will fall down to "toilet bowl", and take a "nutrient bath".

The movie below shows germination of Arabidopsis seed, enjoy it!