With concern about climate change growing, understanding how plants adapt to their environment has become an important focus for research. Which genes govern drought resistance? Which genes respond to weather and climate conditions? A recent study relied on programming by Weijia Xu, group leader for the data mining and statistics group at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), US, to suggest gene expression plays a significant role in a plant’s adaptation to local climate. To arrive at this conclusion, the authors of the study looked at Arabidopsis thaliana, an edible mustard green popular with geneticists because of its relatively small genome — about 25,000 genes. The study’s scientists compared their data with over 1,000 previously gathered Arabidopsis thaliana strains, seeking a single letter among nearly 100 million DNA base pairs. Too read further, please visit http://www.isgtw.org/feature/supercomputers-statistical-software-and-science-bridging-gap-study-plant-adaptation-0.