Plant scientists have been studying wrong plant

Scientists have misunderstood one of the most fundamental processes in the life of plants because they have been looking at the wrong flower, according to University of Leeds researchers. Arabidopsis thaliana —also known as thale cress or mouse-ear cress—grows abundantly in cracks in pavements all over Europe and Asia, but the small white flower leads a second life as the lab rat of the plant world. It has become the dominant model plant in genetics research because of its simple genetics and ease of use in a research environment. Thousands of trays of the humble weed are cultivated in laboratories across the world, but it turns out they may actually contain a rather oddball plant. A study by researchers at the University of Leeds found that Arabidopsis thaliana was exceptional in not having a key “censorship” protein called SMG1. SMG1 was known to play a vital role in the growth of animals as multicellular organisms, but scientists thought that plants built their complex life fundamentally differently. That conclusion, it turns out, was built on a dummy sold by Arabidopsis thaliana.