A genus of flowering plants of the family Cruciferae (Brassicaceae). The species A. thaliana (thale cress) is widely used as a research tool in molecular genetics and developmental biology because it has a small and simple genome (five pairs of chromosomes), over half of which codes for protein, and it can be easily cultured, having a life cycle of only 6–8 weeks. Its full genome sequence was published in 2000. See, e.g., abc model; flowering.