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Review

Nature Reviews Genetics 3, 124–136 (1 February 2002) | doi:10.1038/nrg730

The art and design of genetic screens: Arabidopsis thaliana

Damian R. Page & Ueli Grossniklaus

Molecular genetic studies rely on well-characterized organisms that can be easily manipulated. Arabidopsis thaliana — the model system of choice for plant biologists — allows efficient analysis of plant function, combining classical genetics with molecular biology. Although the complete sequence of the Arabidopsis genome allows the rapid discovery of the molecular basis of a characterized mutant, functional characterization of the Arabidopsis genome depends on well-designed forward genetic screens, which remain a powerful strategy to identify genes that are involved in many aspects of the plant life cycle.