Arabidposis thaliana is commonly used as a model plant for several reasons: it has a small genome and plant size, a short generation time of 6 weeks, and the ability to easily generate many seeds and variants. It was one of the first plants to have its genome fully sequenced, furthering research on plant genetics, development, and evolution. Due to its small size and rapid life cycle, Arabidopsis thaliana provides an efficient system for studying basic plant processes that can be applied to economically important crops.