Genetic transformation of Arabidopsis lyrata: specific expression of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) in pistil tissues.

Arabidopsis thaliana has become widely used as a model system for plant biology. Recent phylogenetic studies led to a severe revision of the systematic relationships across species of the Brassicaceae family. This provided an opportunity to examine close relatives of A. thaliana and to study the function and molecular evolution of genes that play roles in ecology and speciation. In this context, developing tools to genetically transform "non-model plants" appears as a major issue to ascertain gene function. Here, we report a method to transform A. lyrata, one of the closest relatives of A. thaliana.