Even before researchers had sequenced the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, the small flowering relative of broccoli and a favorite model organism,1 others in the budding field of microarray analysis were attempting to glean its secrets. This issue's Hot Papers represent two early and successful attempts at connecting Arabidopsis gene expression to Arabidopsis biology, using only a fraction of its genome. Peer Schenk and his colleagues studied responses to pathogens or defense-stimulating molecules in the leaf, and ended up uncovering unexpected complexities in the plant's defense responses.2 Steve Kay's team analyzed the genetic underpinnings of the plant's circadian rhythms, and learned a thing or two about how the phenylpropanoid gene expresses itself just before sunrise.3
"[People] had been developing Arabidopsis microarrays for a number of years, and these were some of the first papers that published high-quality data with real biological conclusions," says Chris Town, an associate investigator at The Institute ...
