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Plant Molecular Biology and Genetics
 Owing to its small size and short generation time (~6 weeks from seed to adult), the mustard relative Arabidopsis thaliana has become a workhorse of plant molecular biology and genetics. In addition to pursuing their specific research interests, W. Richard McCombie and Robert Martienssen helped organize the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative, a large-scale international effort established in 1996 to sequence the entire genome of this plant species.
This year, and well-ahead of schedule, the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative reached its goal of sequencing the entire Arabidopsis genome and thus obtained the first-ever complete genome sequence from a plant. This achievement has profound implications for biology, medicine, agriculture, and the environment because it will enable detailed studies of the entire genetic structure of plants to be carried out. Such studies will yield a great deal of new information about plant growth; crop yields; disease and drought resistance; ripening and spoilage; pharmaceutical, vitamin, and "edible vaccine" production; and many other aspects of plant biology.
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