Progress in Arabidopsis starch research and potential biotechnological applications

For the past decade, Arabidopsis has been the model higher plant of choice. Research into leaf starch metabolism has demonstrated that Arabidopsis is a useful system in which to make fundamental discoveries about both starch biosynthesis and starch degradation. This review describes recent discoveries in these fields and illustrates how such discoveries might be applied in the green biotechnology sector to improve and diversify our starch crops.