What the fruit fly is to zoologists, the thale cress is to botanists. The widespread herb with the botanical name Arabidopsis thaliana serves them as a model organism from which knowledge can be gained for other plants. It is therefore extremely well researched—also genetically. For example, it is now known that the genetic material of Arabidopsis thaliana (its genome) comprises around 125 million base pairs. It’s like having a Lego manual in front of you that is 125 million letters long and contains everything you need to know to build an Arabidopsis plant.
Click here for original story, Genome studies do not always reveal useful information with larger sample sizes
Source: Phys.org