Why study plant development with Arabidopsis?

Start with the whole plant. Locate the rosette, then a leaf, its tissues and cellular structures. Each step changes the question: where is the organ, how is it organized and which processes can be examined at this level? A photograph, micrograph and teaching model may come from different specimens. Each needs a caption and source; the sequence of views is not continuous magnification of one individual.

FLC offers a testable example of gene regulation during vernalization, a prolonged cold period. In a 2011 Arabidopsis study, the FLC promoter and first exon were sufficient for initial repression during cold, without requiring antisense transcription. Maintaining repression after return to warmth required additional gene-body regions in the tested constructs. These results concern those experimental conditions; they are not a universal explanation of flowering in all plants.

Try the anatomical route

Worked route: start with the Arabidopsis species page, then open leaf, palisade mesophyll cell and chloroplast. For each step record the object, image type, scale when supplied, and source. These may be different specimens, not a continuous zoom into one plant. In a leaf model, distinguish measured length and width from assumed thickness or curvature; a model variant without measurements is a teaching example.

Continue to a gene and lesson

Next, open FLC and its linked lesson. Make four notes: the investigated material, the altered condition, the measured result and the limit of the conclusion. Save the source and lesson version. V. V. Chub's original plant-development course is available on Teach-in; its lectures are in Russian, including when reached from this English page.

Check your interpretation

Check your understanding. Similar leaf shape does not establish identical genotype. An FLC database record does not show its current activity in a selected plant. Those questions require appropriate observations and experiments. The learning route helps identify which evidence is needed for the next inference.

Levels of organisation

Moving between levels of organization. Images can represent different specimens; check the scale in each caption.

An illustrative completed learning route records: whole plant—organism photograph; leaf—organ photograph with its scale; palisade cell—optical section of stated material; chloroplast—electron micrograph from a separate study. The result explains what each view can show and marks changes of specimen. An amino-acid sequence of FLC adds a protein-sequence record. None of these transitions alone measures FLC expression or proves that every image came from one plant.