The recent application of molecular heredity to the problems of evolutionary biology has given us a deeper insight into molecular mechanisms in which cells determine their developmental destiny. This is particularly evident in the recent progress in understanding developmental processes in typical animal systems such as Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans.

Although the use of plants in some early genetic experiments, the synthesis of molecular bases for plant development has lagged behind the growth of animals. However, the emergence of model systems such as Arab dallis thaliana, susceptible to developmental genetics, has led to the beginning of disintegration of the puzzles behind plant deformation.

This atlas of the morphology and evolution of Arabidopsis herbs tends to be a reference book, both for scientists who already know the anatomy of the plant and for those who use Arabidopsis who came from other fields. The primary focus is on descriptions instead of interpretations, where interpretations develop and change relatively quickly, while the evolution of plant form takes place on a much longer time scale.

Molecular genetics and the use of mutants in the study of the function of wild-type genes depend on wild species that is well characterized. With this in mind, an attempt has been made to provide a detailed description of the structure and the wild pattern, to provide a basis for comparison with the identified mutants in the atlas. More importantly, it is hoped that the Atlas will be a valuable resource in characterizing the new mutants.

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