Physical mapping of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome

Arabidopsis thaliana, a small cruciferous plant, has been adopted as a model system in plant molecular genetics. Due to the small genome size and excellent genetics, the plant is well amenable to mutational analyses. Loci controlling important developmental and metabolic processes have been revealed and many of them are currently being isolated using map-based cloning strategies. Physical maps of the five chromosomes are currently being generated to facilitate these approaches. The progress in establishing a complete physical map of the Arabidopsis genome based on YAC clones is presented, as well as the information which can be gained from using these maps.