Understanding the molecular mechanisms of vegetative desiccation tolerance, an important trait in the colonization of the land during the evolution of land plants, has fundamental importance in plant biology and more practically, for improving plant drought tolerance in important crop species.To fully explore this important trait, especially at the cellular level, it is critical that we focus efforts on a manipulable model that offers access to all of the molecular genetic tools that can be used in the dissection of the phenotype.In this instance a bryophyte model would be the ideal.