Abstract

We have found extensive nucleosomal fragmentation of native DNA extracted from leaves of healthy cereal plants, as indicated by ladder patterns on agarose gels and TUNEL staining The time of first appearance of fragmentation differed among cereals. Native DNA from the first leaf of 10-day-old plants formed a clear ladder pattern of multiples of 180 bp fragments in wheat and triticale but not in barley and oats In one cultivar of rye a weak ladder pattern occurred but not in another. Freezing and thawing of samples before DNA extraction resulted in much more extensive DNA fragmentation in wheat but not in rye and barley, indicating that DNA-degrading enzymes are present in the cytoplasm of wheat, but not in barley and rye, at this stage In barley, nucleosomal fragmentation was first detected in 25-day-old plants These results indicate that programmed cell death takes place in developing leaves of young cereal plants, but that the time of onset differs among cereal species

Published in

Hereditas
2002, Volume: 136, number: 2, pages: 108-115
Publisher: BLACKWELL MUNKSGAARD

SLU Authors

• Liljeroth, Erland

  • Department of Crop Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Bryngelsson, Tomas

  • Department of Crop Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1601-5223.2002.1360204.x

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/5896