Calcium-mediated apoptosis in a plant hypersensitive disease resistance response.

LEVINE A,; PENNELL R.,; MARIA ELENA ALVAREZ; PALMER R,; LAMB C.,

CELL PRESS

Año: 1996 vol. 4 p. 427 - 427

ackground: Avirulent pathogens elicit a battery of plant defenses, often accompanied by collapse of the challenged cells. In soybean cells, sustained accumulation of H2O2 from an oxidative burst cues localized host cell death. Such hypersensitive cell death appears to be an active process, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying cellular collapse. Results: We show that H2O2 stimulates a rapid influx of Ca2+ into soybean cells, which activates a physiological cell death program resulting in the generation of large (~50 kb) DNA fragments and cell corpse morphology ? including cell shrinkage, plasma membrane blebbing and nuclear condensation ? characteristic of apoptosis. In contrast, H2O2 induction of the cellular protectant gene glutathione S-transferase is Ca2+-independent. Apoptosis in soybean cells and leaf tissue was induced by avirulent Pseudomonas syringae pv. glycinea but was not observed at comparable stages of the compatible interaction with the isogen