Sequencing of eukaryotic genomes: Arabidopsis, the fourth element

Arabidopsis thaliana is an important model for flowering plants. Analysis o f the sequence of this genome is giving us access to a considerable quantit y of data which will lead to an understanding of plant function, as well as important information about conserved processes in all eucaryotes. In part icular, a catalogue of the genes which participate in the life cycle of a p lant has been developed. This catalog is probably imperfect, because the ge nes that it contains are essentially based on predictions, and in,the major ity of cases, their function is hypothetic at best. Never-theless, this cat alog makes it possible, for the first time, to evaluate the scope of the wo rk that remains to be done in order to comprehend the biological processes in the life of an angiosperm.