What is Silique?

Silique is a specialized type of fruit produced by many members of the mustard family of plants. It seems to be dry seeds. Plants that produce Silique include vegetables such as cabbage and turnip, and gardening plants such as wallflower and stock. Botanically, these specialized fruits are used to identify different types of plants. They are very important in plant biology because they produce the seeds of the model organism arabidopsis thaliana . He is torn as he matures to release his seeds. This process is called dehiscence . Some species have structures similar to siliques that remain closed when they are ripe. Such fruit is known as Indemiscent Siliques .

To be silique, seed capsules must be more than twice as long as it is wide. It is derived from two carp, which are structures that contain eggs. Carpels develop fruits while eggs develop into seeds. There are also Silicles , which are structures similar toElique seeds of capsules, also in a mustard family. These structures have fruit that is not as long, but otherwise they are like silique. Siliques are therefore important for these crops in the production of seed. Many desired gardening plants also produce these specialized fruit.

Siliques are of great importance in the laboratory because of their production according to the model organism arabidopsis thaliana . Arabidopsis is comparable to a laboratory rat or fruit flies in its role in the study of plant genetics and molecular biology. Mutants of this plant have been studied since the 18th century.

The plant has a small size of the genome. The amount of its total dowel one of the smallest of any plant. This facilitated the sequencing of the whole genome. Clones of all Arabidopsis genes are available from the central center. For most plants, this can be a laborious process that takes years to clone the gene. SinceIts sequence is fully known, it is possible to clone with e-mail with Arabidopsis and simply order the required gene.

laboratories that study molecular biology of Arabidopsis often also study genetics of their genes of interest. The plant has a short six -week life cycle, which is another advantage. A single flowering stem can lead to the production of more than two dozen Siliques, each containing up to 30 seeds. Once the plants are bred and produced silique, they are left to dry up so that scientists can harvest the seeds. It is not unusual that Arabidopsis Research Laboratories is full of Arabidopsis dead plants that are waiting to dry their siliques and seeds will be harvested.

There are differences in Silique terminology depending on the type of spoken English. In the UK, this fruit is known as Siliqua , with the plural number as siliquae . One must not confuse these plants with legume plants such as peas pods that are not siliques.