Plant 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. Ancient trees are revered and many are famous. Tree rings themselves are an important method of dating in archeology,
Gregor Mendel Institute Gregor Mendel Institute The Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) is a basic research institute in the field of molecular plant biology founded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2000 and located at the Vienna Biocenter. It is named after Gregor Mendel, the "father of genetics", who studied at the University of Vienna in the middle of the 19th century. Research at the GMI covers aspects of molecular genetics, including basic mechanisms of epigenetics, population genetics, chromosome biology, developmental biology, stress signal transduction and plant pathogens. "Arabidopsis thaliana" is the primary model organism used. The scientific director