In 1996, international research teams that have been decoding the genome sequence of Arabidopsis thaliana, a weed in the mustard family whose rapid growth cycle and small size make it an ideal experimental model for plant biology research, came together to form the Arabidopsis Genome Initiative (AGI). NSF now leads a new 2010 Project that seeks to determine the 25,000 functions of the Arabidopsis genes over the next decade. Discover what researchers have found from this seemingly mundane weed and how that information has improved our understanding of disease resistance, root development and other important plan processes.