Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Sci. STKE, 10 August 2004
Vol. 2004, Issue 245, p. tw287
[DOI: 10.1126/stke.2452004tw287]

EDITORS' CHOICE

CASPASES Programming Cell Death in Plants

Programmed cell death serves many useful functions--it helps in remodeling tissues during development and when organisms respond to environmental challenges. In virally infected plants, infected cells are killed by programmed cell death during the hypersensitive response. However, the signature caspases that promote programmed cell death found in animals have not been found in plants. Hatsugai et al. now identify VPE, a vacuolar processing enzyme, as a critical component of programmed cell death in tobacco plants. It seems that each plant cell, confined within its rigid cell wall, contains within its own vacuole the seeds of its own destruction.

N. Hatsugai, M. Kuroyanagi, K. Yamada, T. Meshi, S. Tsuda, M. Kondo, M. Nishimura, I. Hara-Nishimura, A plant vacuolar protease, VPE, mediates virus-induced hypersensitive cell death. Science 305, 855-858 (2004). [Abstract] [Full Text]

Citation: Programming Cell Death in Plants. Sci. STKE 2004, tw287 (2004).

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882