Multinational Coordinated 'Arabidopsis thaliana' Functional Genomics Project. Annual Report 2007

摘要

This is the 2006/2007 annual report of the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC) on the status of the Multinational Coordinated Arabidopsis thaliana Functional Genomics Project. The primary goal of this 10-year program (initiated in 2001) is to determine a function for every Arabidopsis gene and thus begin to obtain a detailed and comprehensive understanding of a flowering plant. Arabidopsis is widely recognized as the most suitable plant for experimentation in genetics and genomics and has gained almost universal support as the central reference and conceptual framework for much of plant biology, particularly for molecular studies. The value of Arabidopsis as a central reference is immediately apparent to most plant scientists and is easily justified by the huge strides forward in our understanding of basic plant science made since 2000. The intent has always been that the knowledge gained on this model organism would serve to advance understanding about other plant species, particularly crop species, and thus translate into new or improved plant products and increased agricultural productivity. As highlighted in this years report, such knowledge transfer is occurring at many levels by many different routes.