In most natural habitats, Arabidopsis is a winter annual: Its seeds germinate in the fall, the young plants survive the winter, floral meristems emerge in the spring, and only the seeds survive the summer months. Most common laboratory varieties of Arabidopsis flower within 4 weeks of germination, and seeds can be collected after an additional 4-6 weeks. - [Read Cultivation of Arabidopsis Protocol]
Protocol for spore germination. This procedure is typically used for the isolation and preparation of spores from a diploid strain heterozygous for a marked disruption (e.g., yfg1::his3+) Inoculation of the spore population into minimal medium lacking the nutritional supplement corresponding to the disruption marker (e.g., minimal medium lacking histidine) allows only the disruption spores to germinate. - [Read Spore Germination Protocol]