Molecular tools to study Physcomitrella patens

The moss Physcomitrella patens has become a suitable model plant system for the analysis of diverse aspects of modern plant biology. The research strategies have been influenced by the implementation of state-of-the-art cell culture and molecular biology techniques. The forthcoming completion of the Physcomitrella genome sequencing project will generate many open questions, the examination of which will rely on a diverse set of molecular tools. Within this article, we intend to introduce the essential cell culture and molecular biology techniques which have been adopted in recent years to make Physcomitrella amenable to a wide range of genetic analyses. Many research groups have made valuable contributions to improve the methodology for the study of Physcomitrella. We would like to apologise to all colleagues whose important contributions could not be cited within this manuscript.