|
June 2, 2004
Source:
Swedish Research Council
A research team at the
Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences, SLU, has succeeded in isolating a novel gene that
regulates cell death in plant embryos. This is a world first.
The team consists of scientists
from the Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics, headed
by Peter Bozhkov and Sara von Arnold. The team has discovered
programmed cell death in plant embryos and has recently
identified the first gene that regulates this cell death. This
research has been conducted in collaboration with Durham
University, England, and the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
"This is a tiny, tiny step that
we have taken in basic research on plant development. In the
long term this may be of significance in plant breeding and in
forestry," says Sara von Arnold, professor of forest tree cell
biology at SLU.
The scientists hope the new
knowledge about how programmed cell death is regulated can be
exploited to increase production and bolster resistance in
plants.
Programmed cell death is a
natural and vital process during the life cycle of multicellular
organisms. Among other purposes, it regulates the form of
organisms during certain developmental stages and removes
superfluous or damaged cells. It could be said that cell death
is a kind of suicide that is regulated by a "death gene." This
has been studied extensively in animal cells.
The 2002 Nobel laureates in
medicine and physiology identified key genes that regulate the
development of organs and programmed cell death in worms. These
genes are crucial to the functioning of the body. When the
balance between production of new cells and cell death is
disturbed, diseases like cancer and several neurological
disorders arise.
Compared with animal cells,
plant cells have developed completely different mechanisms to
regulate programmed cell death. With the SLU scientists‚
discovery, recently published in the scientific journal Current
Biology, it is now possible to study how these different
regulatory mechanisms have evolved in plants and animals.
Metacaspase-dependent
programmed cell death is essential for plant embryogenesis.
Current Biology 14:
R339-R340.
Suarez MF, Filonova LH, Smertenko A, Savenkov EI, Clapham DH,
von Arnold S, Zhivotovsky B and Bozhkov PV. (2004) |
