Archaic lineages broaden our view on the history of Arabidopsis thaliana

Natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana has contributed to discoveries in diverse areas of plant biology. While A.thaliana has typically been considered a weed associated primarily with human-mediated environments, including agricultural and urban sites and railways, it has recently been shown that it is also native in remote natural areas, including high altitude sites in Eurasia and Africa, from the Atlas mountains in Morocco to the afro-alpine regions in Eastern and South Africa to Yunnan in China, the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. This finding suggests that while A.thaliana has been extensively studied in Europe and Western Asia there are still many open questions about its population history, genotype-phenotype relationships and mechanisms of adaptation.