The year 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of the fully assembled Arabidopsis nuclear genome DNA sequence. On this occasion, we at The Plant Journal wish to offer an opportunity to look back and highlight some of the numerous accomplishments in plant science that the availability of the first plant nuclear genome DNA sequence has spawned.

The Plant Journal is pleased to present a special issue comprising a series of invited peer-reviewed articles that describe key areas of progress in plant biology to which research on Arabidopsis has contributed. The Special Issue is accompanied by this podcast – a conversation between Christoph Benning, Co-Editor of the Special Issue and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University in East Lansing Michigan, Caroline Dean, Project Leader at the John Innes Centre in Norwich in England, Elliot Meyerowitz, George W. Beadle Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and Chris Somerville, Director of the Energy Biosciences Institute in Berkeley, California.