Arabidopsis thaliana culture. Researcher's hand holding up a jar containing a culture of the plant A. thaliana. This plant is used as a model organism in plant studies, including plant genetics. It has a relatively small genome for a plant, with only 5 chromosomes. It also grows and reproduces rapidly, taking only 6 weeks to pass through its entire life cycle. Another advantage is that it is relatively easy to manipulate its genome, for example by using bacteria to transfer new DNA to the plant's cells.