When your experiments or breeding programs with Arabidopsis thaliana concern hundreds of plants, you need an easy way to harvest the plant's seeds. Since manually harvesting the seeds is inefficient and time-consuming, we came up with a better way: the ARASYSTEM.
The Arasystem was developed by Dirk Valvekens, one of the first researchers to develop an efficient transformation procedure for Arabidopsis thaliana in 1988. In an effort to simplify and accelerate the process of manually removing siliques and harvesting seeds, Dr. Valvekens designed the Arasystem as a simple and elegant solution.

The ARASYSTEM components

At the core of the system is the ARACON, the seed harvesting device that automatically collect the seeds produced by individual Arabidopsis plants during their entire life cycle. Aracons also prevent cross fertilization of flowers and cross contamination of seeds arising from plant to plant contact. Moreover Aracons reduce the risk of uncontrolled release of transgenic seeds into the environment.

The Aracon consists of two parts: the ARATUBE and ARABASE.

The Arabase is the lower part of the Aracon. The base is designed as an inverted cone that both directs the growth of the flowering stem into the tube and acts as a receptacle for the falling seeds.
The Aratube is the upper part of the Aracon. The tube guides the falling seeds into the base and prevents the flowering stems of different plants to intertwine. The tube also makes sure no cross-fertilization can occur.

To further simplify working with Arabidopsis and the Aracons, we added 3 additional components:

ARAFLATs are arrays of 51 individual pot cavities ideally suited for growing Arabidopsis plants at densities that guarantee maximal seed yield.

The ARABASKETs fit right into the pot cavities of the Araflat and allow individual plants to be moved around at all times. They are especially handy for seed harvesting and mutant screening. In the early stages of an insect infestation, affected plants can be easily removed when grown in Arabaskets.

ARATRAYs are used to easily move groups of plants in Araflats around. They also allow subirrigation of the plants and enable the use of the Arasystem in greenhouses and laboratory growth chambers that lack flooding facilities.

Ready to get at it?

Each of the Arasystem components can be ordered separately or in a complete 360 Arasystem kit, containing all components in one package. For more detailed information on the products and quantities, visit the different product pages.
More recommendations and guidelines on the use of the Arasystem can be found in our User Guide.