Vacuolar cell death in plants Metacaspase releases the brakes on autophagy

Abstract

Vacuolar programmed cell death (PCD) is indispensable for plant development and is accompanied by a dramatic growth of lytic vacuoles, which gradually digest cytoplasmic content leading to self-clearance of dying cells. Our recent data demonstrate that vacuolar PCD critically requires autophagy and its upstream regulator, a caspase-fold protease metacaspase. Furthermore, both components lie downstream of the point of no return in the cell-death pathway. Here we consider the possibilities that i) autophagy could have both cytotoxic and cytoprotective roles in the vacuolar PCD, and ii) metacaspase could augment autophagic flux through targeting an as yet unknown autophagy repressor.

Keywords

autophagy; embryo-suspensor; metacaspase; necrosis; plants; vacuolar cell death

Published in

Autophagy
2014, volume: 10, number: 5, pages: 926-927

SLU Authors

• Minina, Alyona

  • Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Linnean Centre for Plant Biology

• Bozhkov, Peter

  • Department of Plant Biology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Linnean Centre for Plant Biology

UKÄ Subject classification

Developmental Biology
Plant Biotechnology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4161/auto.28236

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/57541