The use of Arabidopsis in genetics and biology laboratories can be traced back to the beginning of the century, when the small size of this plant species, its short generation time, and the thousands of seeds produced by each plant attracted the interest of geneticists. In the middle of the century, this plant had already gained a place in several genetics laboratories both in Europe and the United States, being widely used in mutagenesis experiments. However, exponential growth in the use of Arabidopsis as a model system did not get started until the 1980s, when the small size of its genome was realized, thus triggering the interest of geneticists and molecular biologists, not only from the plant field, but from other research fields needing a novel model system. In recent years, high expectations for Plant Biotechnology in the next century, together with the need for basic information in every area of plant biology, have served to mobilize resources and orient much new research towards the plant field, where the special biological features of Arabidopsis have further focused attention on this useful species. The high level of interest in Arabidopsis has worked as a catalyst and, today, the system has been dev- oped to the point where any gene identified on the basis ofa phenotype can be cloned with a reasonable amount of time and effort.
