Category:	Science and Technology
Domain:	Mathematics, Biology and Biotechnology
Keywords:	Biotechnology & genetics - mathematics, bioinformatics, biology, information technology, genome, food, crops, medicinal
Outlook:	Completion of the 2010 Project to understand the function of all genes in a model plant is expected to support the development of crops, plants of industrial usefulness, and medicinal plants.
Summary Analysis:	The Arabidopsis 2010 Project is a multinational effort that aims to understand the functions of the 25,000 genes of Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering weed from the mustard family, by 2010. Launched by the US National Science Foundation in 2000, following the completion of the map of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, the project is likely to help us understand more about how genes work in a celluar, organism and evolutionary context. Eventually, the 2010 Project will broaden its scope to consider how new understanding of the genes and proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana can be applied to all plants. Arabidopsis thaliana has a very small genome and most of its genes are common in all plants, so most discoveries made in this project will be applicable to plants of greater industrial usefulness, such as crop plants or medicinal plants. The project will teach us more about fundamental aspects of all plant growth – flowering, root growth, hormone action as well as how plants respond to changes in their environment. The overall aims of the project are more ambitious however – in their mission statement, the scientists of Arabidopsis 2010 write that by understanding more about plants “we can start to address the big issues, such as food for an expanding world population and ways of protecting our environment for future generations.”

	Implications:	Potential for extension of mathematical techniques used in the 2010 Project to similar, more complex work on other plant and possibly animal species Increased agricultural productivity Increased production of genetically engineered crops
	Early Indicators:	Completion of Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequence mapping in 2000 Launch of the 2010 Project
	What to Watch:	Functional models of the genes in Arabidopsis thaliana are published. Projects to model complete cells or even organisms are launched.
	Parallels/Precedents:	Launch of the Human Genome Project in 1990, with successful completion and publication in 2003
	Enablers/drivers:	Continued development of data-mining/pattern-recognition algorithms and technology Continued development of networking tools for geographically distributed collaboration Further development of languages for modeling of complex systems
	Leaders:	Institutions: The Multinational Arabidopsis Thaliana Functional Genomics Project (U.S., Europe, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, Japan) [link] US National Science Foundation, several US universities [link] The Arabidopsis Functional Genomics Network, University of Tubingen, Germany [link] European Union-funded plant genomics programmes relevant to Arabidopsis thaliana [link] European Research Area Plant Genomics Network (ERA-NET) [link] Multinational Coordinated Arabidopsis Thaliana Genome Research Project (original mapping project) [link] European Bioinformatics Institute [link] Salk Institute Genomic Analysis Labotatory (SIGNAL) [link] Plant Genomics Research Unit (Unité de Recherche en Génomique Végétale - URGV) [link] BioSapiens Network: European Virtual Institute for Genome Annotation [link] National Institute for Agriculture Research (INRA) [link] John Innes Centre [link] The Sainsbury Laboratory [link] Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford [link] Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Oxford [link] University of London, Imperial College
	Figures:
	Sources:	"Wonderweed." December 2000. New Scientist [link] "Arabidopsis thaliana." Nature.com Genome Gateway. [link] "Human Genome Project Information." [link] "Genomics Project Aims to Create a 'Virtual Plant'." Science A GoGo. 1 June 2000. Accessed 6 July 2005. [link] "Timeline of important events happened in molecular biology and bioinformatics." [link] "NSF 2010 In Vivo Genomics." NSF. [link] "Arabidopsis 2010: Tools and Technologies to Enable Genome-Wide Screens in Arabidopsis." Salk Institute Genomic Analysis Laboratory. [link] "Mathematical Sciences: Innovations at the Interface with the Sciences and Engineering." National Science Foundation. [link] "Thornton Group Home Page" Thornton Group Home Page. EMBL-EBI. [link] Thornton, Janet. "The Proteome & the Metabolome." Worldwide Universities Network, Horizons in Bioinformatics. [link] Chory, J. et al. "Functional genomics and the virtual plant: a blueprint for understanding how plants are built and how to improve them." Plant Physiol 123. June 2000. Meinke, D. et al. "Arabidopsis thaliana: a Model Plant for Genome Analysis." Science. Vol 282. October 23 1998 [link]

	At A Glance:	When:	3–10 years
		Where:	Global
		How Fast:	Years
		Likelihood:	Medium-Low
		Impact:	Medium-Low
		Controversy:	Low

Related Outlooks:

Plant Genotyping in Support of Human Health