A convenient and versatile hydroponic cultivation system for Arabidopsis thaliana

A versatile two-step cultivation procedure for Arabidopsis thaliana is described for the production of large quantities of leaf material suitable for biochemical and biophysical analysis. The first step comprises a miniature greenhouse made out of a plastic pipette box to grow the seedlings to the six-leaf stage. For continued growth, the seedlings are transferred to hydroponic cultivation using an opaque container covered by a styrofoam lid. Transfer of the small seedlings to hydroponic culture is facilitated by growth in separate pipette tips, which protects vulnerable roots from damage. The hydroponic cultivation system is easy to scale-up and produces large amounts of relatively large leaves and roots. This hydroponic system produces enough plant material to make Arabidopsis a feasible model for biochemical and biophysical experiments, which can be combined with the available genetic information to address various aspects of plant functional genomics.