It is often claimed that programmed cell death (pcd) exists in plants and that a form of pcd known as the hypersensitive response is triggered as a defense mechanism by microbial pathogens. However, in contrast to animals, no feature in plants universally identifies or defines pcd. We have looked for a hallmark of pcd in animal cells, namely, DNA cleavage, in plant cells killed by infection wit...

Ischemic injuries of the brain, including stroke and neonatal hypoxia-ischemia, are characterized by widespread cell death of neurons in the affected tissue [1-3]. The cell death that occurs includes two related programmed cell death (PCD) pathways, apoptosis and necroptosis [2,4,5]. These pathways overlap in their initial signaling steps but diverge to produce two very different outcomes. In g...

We previously showed that silencing of NbBPS1 encoding an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-localized protein results in pleiotrophic developmental defects and cell death in Nicotiana benthamiana [Kang et al. (2008)]. In this study, we investigated the mechanism of the cell death caused by NbBPS1 silencing. Affected leaf cells exhibited morphological markers of programmed cell death (PCD) and accumula...

Short, high-concentration peaks of the atmospheric pollutant ozone (O(3)) cause the formation of cell death lesions on the leaves of sensitive plants. Numerous similarities between the plant responses to O(3) and pathogens suggest that O(3) triggers hypersensitive response-like programmed cell death (PCD). We examined O(3) and superoxide-induced cell death in the O(3)-sensitive radical-induced ...

Pollen–pistil interaction is a basic process in the reproductive biology of flowering plants and has been subject intense fundamental research that pronounced practical value. The phytohormones ethylene (ET) cytokinin (CK) together with other hormones such as auxin, gibberellin (GA), jasmonic acid (JA), abscisic (ABA), brassinosteroids (BRs) influence different stages plant development growth. ...

As intracellular parasites, viruses rely on many host cell functions to ensure their replication. The early induction of programmed cell death (PCD) in infected cells constitutes an effective antiviral host mechanism to restrict viral spread within an organism. As a countermeasure, viruses have evolved numerous strategies to interfere with the induction or execution of PCD. Slowly replicating v...

The impact of triterpenoid saponins isolated from soybeans on suppression of colon cancer cell proliferation was evaluated. Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of a purified soybean B-group saponin extract on cell proliferation, cell-cycle distribution and programmed cell death in cultures of human HCT-15 colon adenocarcinoma cells. Treatment of cells with the soyasaponins at co...

The antimalarial agent artesunate (ART) activates programmed cell death (PCD) in cancer cells in a manner dependent on the presence of iron and the generation of reactive oxygen species. In malaria parasites, ART cytotoxicity originates from interactions with heme-derived iron within the food vacuole. The analogous digestive compartment of mammalian cells, the lysosome, similarly contains high ...

Apoptosis or programmed cell death (PCD) is known for defense and developmental mechanisms. A remarkable overlap has been suggested between the hallmarks of PCD in plants and animals in spite of identification of very few regulatory proteins or protein domains conserved across all eukaryotic PCD forms. The features like chromatin condensation, nuclear DNA fragmentation, and participation of cas...

Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient for vascular plants. However, it remains unclear how B deficiency leads to various metabolic disorders and cell death. To understand this mechanism, we analyzed the physiological changes in suspension-cultured tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) BY-2 cells upon B deprivation. When 3-day-old cells were transferred to B-free medium, cell death was detectable as ear...