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THE ADVENTURE TO THE HALF MOON: Arabidopsis thaliana

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After the astronauts had journeyed for about 156 hours, they were gradually getting close to the half moon. However, the journey has been adventurous.

“Guy!! We are coming to the end of this journey,” Alfred said.

“I didn’t know the half moon was this far,” Sarah said.

“Look at those Arabidopsis thaliana,” Raphael said.

“Let’s move closer!” Brown said and the astronauts walked to the Arabidopsis thaliana.

“What are these guys?” Sarah said, touching one Arabidopsis thaliana flower.

“They are plants called Arabidopsis thaliana and produce white flowers,” Raphael said.

“I can see that. Do they produce fruit too?” Sarah said.

“No, they don’t. Arabidopsis thaliana are small plants that have a short generation time, usually 6 weeks, and grow well under laboratory conditions, on shelves at room temperature, with a limited amount of light,” Raphael said.

“Wow!!” Sarah said.

“I have good readers. Well, Arabidopsis thaliana reproduces by self-pollination, although cross-pollination can easily be accomplished. It generates approximately 10, 000 – 30, 000 seeds. Its nuclear genome is small, usually 125 MB, and has been completely sequenced. The plants can be transformed very easily by Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and large collections of T-DNA-insertion and transposon-mobilized lines have been generated and are available for forward and reverse genetic studies,” Alfred said.”

“Oh my God, this is a clear explanation from an academic,” Sarah said.

“All thanks to documentaries,” Alfred said with a smile.

“Do we have Arabidopsis thaliana on earth too?” Sarah said.

“Yes, we have Arabidopsis thaliana on earth too. Arabidopsis thaliana is found on earth; some scientists brought its seeds to the moon for germination,” Smith said.

“Okay…,” Sarah said.

“For further consideration, Arabidopsis thaliana is a small plant that generates tiny seeds. Upon germination, these seeds give rise to small seedlings that can grow under sterile conditions in petri dishes, under controlled environmental conditions. Hence, it is possible to subject individual seedlings to changing levels of a specific environmental parameter, while maintaining other growth conditions constant. This ability to grow large numbers of Arabidopsis seedlings under highly controlled environmental conditions has allowed the development of large-scale screens to examine many mutagenized plants for identification of gravitropic mutants. Conclusively, Arabidopsis thaliana has many attributes that make it a very attractive model system for plant genomics. The most important of these is that it has a very small nuclear genome, one of the smallest among the angiosperms or flowering plants,” Smith said.

“Wow!!” the other astronauts, who had been listening painstakingly, said.

“Smith, you fit lecturing you know,” Brown said and everyone laughed.

“Let’s forget about Arabidopsis thaliana; I am famished,” Sarah said.

“Do we still have food left?” Alfred said.

“No!!” Sarah said.

“That’s bad; in our next adventure to the moon, I will come along with potatoes and tomato seeds. I read they can grow on the moon too,” Alfred said jokingly.

“Do you want to plant tomatoes and potatoes here?” Sarah said.

“Yeah, at least, we will be able to cook some stew,” Alfred chuckled and everyone laughed.

“You are not serious, Alfred,” Sarah said.

“Alright, guys; let’s clamber on; we shall see some silkworm eggs to feed on,” Alfred said.

“Okay, boss,” the astronauts said and continued their journey.