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Programmed Cell Death in Plants: An Overview

Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Methods in Molecular Biology book series (MIMB, volume 1743)

Abstract

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a controlled mechanism that eliminates specific cells under developmental or environmental stimuli. All organisms—from bacteria to multicellular eukaryotes—have the ability to induce PCD in selected cells. Although this process was first identified in plants, the interest in deciphering the signaling pathways leading to PCD strongly increased when evidence came to light that PCD may be involved in several human diseases. In plants, PCD activation ensures the correct occurrence of growth and developmental processes, among which embryogenesis and differentiation of tracheary elements. PCD is also part of the defense responses activated by plants against environmental stresses, both abiotic and biotic.

This chapter gives an overview of the roles of PCD in plants as well as the problems arising in classifying different kinds of PCD according to defined biochemical and cellular markers, and in comparison with the various types of PCD occurring in mammal cells. The importance of understanding PCD signaling pathways, with their elicitors and effectors, in order to improve plant productivity and resistance to environmental stresses is also taken into consideration.

Keywords

PCD classification Morphological and molecular markers Plant development Plant defense responses Crop productivity 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors’ research was partly supported by MIUR, PRIN - Prot. 20153NM8RM.

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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Food Sciences and Human Nutrition UnitUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di RomaRomeItaly

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