Human uses of plants or dried flowers. Ornamental plants have sometimes changed the course of history, as in tulipomania. Basic biological research has often been done with plants. In genetics, the breeding of pea plants allowed Gregor Mendel to derive the basic laws governing inheritance, and examination of chromosomes in maize allowed Barbara McClintock to demonstrate their connection to inherited traits. The plant "Arabidopsis thaliana" is used in laboratories as a model organism to understand how genes control the growth and development of plant structures. NASA predicts that space stations or space colonies will one day rely on plants for life support. Scientific advances
Molecular genetics Molecular genetics Molecular genetics is the field of biology that studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level and thus employs methods of both molecular biology and genetics. The study of chromosomes and gene expression of an organism can give insight into heredity, genetic variation, and mutations. This is useful in the study of developmental biology and in understanding and treating genetic diseases. Gene amplification is a procedure in which a certain gene or DNA sequence is replicated many times in a process called DNA replication. In separation and detection, DNA and mRNA are isolated from cells