Abstract
Programmed cell death (PCD) applies to cell death that is a normal part of the life of a multicellular organism; it results in controlled disassembly of the cell. In animal systems, PCD is synonymous with apoptosis, a cell death process characterized by a distinct set of morphological and biochemical features and breakdown of DNA at internucleosomal sites resulting in a DNA-ladder pattern on agarose gels. These typical changes are thought to be mediated by a class of specific cysteine proteases called caspases. Although numerous processes in plants conform to the general definition of PCD there is no a priori reason that a relationship exists with the caspase-mediated cell death process in animal cells that is commonly called PCD or apoptosis. Treatment of tomato suspension cells with chemicals known to induce apoptosis in animal systems induced cell death. This chemical-induced cell death was accompanied by development of morphological features typical for animal apoptosis and DNA laddering indicating that apoptotic cell death was induced. Treatment of the cells with ethylene or 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) greatly stimulated, while inhibitors of ethylene biosynthesis or action effectively blocked chemical-induced cell death. These results indicate that ethylene is a mediater of apoptotic cell death in plants.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Beers, E.P. (1997) Programmed cell death during plant growth and development, Cell Death and Differentiation 4, 649–661.
Buckner, B., Janick-Buckner, D., Gray, J. and Johal, G.S. (1998) Cell-death mechanisms in maize, Trends Plant Science 3, 218–223.
Clarke, P.G.H. (1990) Developmental cell death: morphological diversity and multiple mechanisms, Anat. Embryol. 181, 195–213.
Clem, R.J. and Duckett, C.S. (1997) The iap genes: unique arbitrators of cell death, Trends in Cell Biol. 7, 337–339.
Cohen, G.M. (1997) Caspases: the executioners of apoptosis, Biochem. J. 326, 1–16.
De Jong, A.J., Yakimova, E.T., Hoeberichts, F.A., Maximova, E. and Woltering, E.J., Caspase-like proteases are involved in apoptotic cell death in plants, submitted.
Del Pozo, O. and Lam, E. (1998) Caspases and programmed cell death in the hypersensitive response of plants to pathogens, Curr. Biol. 8, 1129–1132.
Dion, M., Chamberland, H., St-Michel, C., Plante, M., Darveau, A., Lafontaine, J.G., and Brisson, L.F. (1997) Detection of a homologue of bcl-2 in plant cells, Biochem. Cell. Biol. 75, 457–461.
Fu, J., Ren, M. and Kreibig, G. (1997) Interactions among subunits of the oligosaccharyl transferase complex, J. Biol. Chem. 47, 29687–29692.
Greenberg, J.T. (1996) Programmed cell death: A way of life for plants, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 12094–12097.
He, C-J., Morgan, P.W. and Drew M.C. (1996) Transduction of an ethylene signal is required for cell death and lysis in the root cortex of maize during aerenchima formation induced by hypoxia, Plant Physiol. 112, 463–472.
Kelleher, D.J. and Gilmore, R. (1997) DAD1, the defender against apoptotic cell death, is a subunit of the mammalian oligosaccharyltransferase, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 4994–4999.
Kumar, S. (1997) The Bcl-2 family of proteins and activation of the 1CE-CED-3 family of proteases: A balancing act in apoptosis, Cell Death and Differentiation 4, 2–3.
Lund, S.T., Stall, R.E. and Klee, H.J. (1998) Ethylene regulates the susceptible respons to pathogen infection in tomato, Plant Cell 10, 371–382.
Morel, J.B. and Dangl, J.L. (1997) The hypersensitive response and the induction of cell death in plants, Cell Death and Differentiation 4, 671–683.
Nakashima, T., Sekiguchi, T., Kuraoka, A., Fukushima, K., Shibata, Y., Komiyama, S. and Nishimoto, T. (1993) Molecular cloning of a human cDNA encoding a novel protein, DAD1, whose defect causes apoptotic cell death in hamster BHK21 cells, Mol. Cell. Biol. 13, 6367–6374.
Nicholson, D.W. and Thornberry, N.A. (1997) Caspases: killer proteases, Trends Biochem. Sci. 22, 299–306.
Orzáez, D. and Granell, A. (1997) The plant homologue of the defender against apoptotic death gene is down-regulated during senescence of flower petals, FEBS Lett. 404, 275–278.
Orzáez, D. and Granell, A. (1997) DNA fragmentation is regulated by ethylene during carpel senescence in Pisum sativum, Plant J. 11, 137–144.
Sanjay, A., Fu, J. and Kreibich, G. (1998) DAD1 is required for the function and the structural integrity of the oligosaccharyl transferase complex, J. Biol. Chem. 40, 26094–26099.
Wang, J., Li, J., Bostock, R.M. and Gilchrist, D.G. (1996) Apoptosis: A functional paradigm for programmed cell death induced by a host-selective phytotoxin and invoked during development, Plant Cell 8, 375–391.
Wyllie, A.H. (1987) Apoptosis: cell death in tissue regulation, J. Pathol. 153, 313.
Wyllie, 1995 The genetic regulation of apoptosis, Curr. Opinion in Genet. Development 5, 97–104
Young, T.E., Gallie, D.R. and DeMason, D.A. (1997) Ethylene mediated programmed cell death during maize endosperm development of wild type and shrunken2 genotypes, Plant Physiol. 115, 737–751.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Woltering, E.J., De Jong, A.J., Yakimova, E.T. (1999). Apoptotic Cell Death in Plants: The Role of Ethylene. In: Kanellis, A.K., Chang, C., Klee, H., Bleecker, A.B., Pech, J.C., Grierson, D. (eds) Biology and Biotechnology of the Plant Hormone Ethylene II. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4453-7_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4453-7_38
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5910-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4453-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive