Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAP)-like Protein Lacks a Baculovirus IAP Repeat (BIR) Domain and Attenuates Cell Death in Plant and Animal Systems (original) (raw)
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Regulation of apoptosis in living organisms: A biotechnological approach
Plants, animals and several unicellular eukaryotes use programmed cell death (PCD) for defense and developmental mechanisms. While cell death pathways in animals have been well characterized, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanism of such a strategy in plants. Although, very few regulatory proteins or protein domains have been identified as conserved across all eukaryotic PCD forms, a remarkable overlap has been suggested between the hallmarks of PCD in plants and animals, both at cellular and molecular level. Morphological and biochemical features like chromatin condensation, nuclear DNA fragmentation, and participation of caspase like proteases in plant PCD appear to be similar across the board and in conformity with the process in metazoans as well. Transgenic expression of mammalian anti- and pro- apoptotic proteins in plants has been shown to influence the regulatory pathways of cell death activation and suppression, indicating the existence of functional counterparts of such genes in plants, several of which have now been cloned and characterized to various extents. This suggests that despite differences, there may be a fair level of functional similarity between the mechanistic components of plant and animal apoptosis. Although genome scan of Arabidopsis thaliana seems to rule out the existence of major mammalian apoptotic counterparts in plants, the identification of caspase like proteins and other structural homologs (metacaspases) together with mildly conserved apoptotic players like Bax-1 inhibitor may seemed to suggest some degree of common grounds both in execution and in the regulation of the cell death phenomenon. The overall review of the available data pertaining to mechanism of PCD in plants is at best inclined to support an ancestral relationship with animal apoptosis rather than any common regulational strategies. The establishment of mechanistic details of the phenomenon in plants is certain to throw up many surprises to necessitate a fresh review of this intriguing phenomenon. Metacaspases and Paracaspases having been ruled out to possess caspase activity is the beginning for this surprise to unfold.
A Biotechnological Approach to Apoptosis in Living Organisms: An Overview
Living organisms use apoptosis for resistance and progressive mechanisms. A noteworthy commonality has been advocated between the hallmarks of apoptosis in plants and animals, both at cellular and molecular level though very few governing proteins or protein domains have been identified as conserved across all eukaryotic apoptotic forms, biochemical and biotechnological topographies viz., chromatin condensation, nuclear DNA fragmentation and contribution of caspase like proteases in plant apoptosis look like across the board and in conformism with the process in metazoans as well. Transgenic expression of mammalian anti- and pro-apoptotic proteins in plants has been shown to influence the regulatory pathways of cell death processing, indicative of the existence of functional counterparts of such genes in plants, several of which have now been cloned and characterized extensively, suggesting that despite variances, there may be a rational level of functional resemblance between the mechanistic components of apoptosis of biosystems. Results: An overview of the existing data concerning with mechanism of apoptosis in plants is at best inclined to support an inherited association with animal apoptosis rather than any common governing approaches. Conclusion: This overview provides a brief insight into some of the relative features of Programmed Cell Death (PCD) in plants and animals.
Plants, animals and several unicellular eukaryotes use programmed cell death (PCD) for defense and developmental mechanisms. While cell death pathways in animals have been well characterized, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanism of such a strategy in plants. Although, very few regulatory proteins or protein domains have been identified as conserved across all eukaryotic PCD forms, a remarkable overlap has been suggested between the hallmarks of PCD in plants and animals, both at cellular and molecular level. Morphological and biochemical features like chromatin condensation, nuclear DNA fragmentation, and participation of caspase like proteases in plant PCD appear to be similar across the board and in conformity with the process in metazoans as well. Transgenic expression of mammalian anti-and proapoptotic proteins in plants has been shown to influence the regulatory pathways of cell death activation and suppression, indicating the existence of functional counterparts of such genes in plants, several of which have now been cloned and characterized to various extents. This suggests that despite differences, there may be a fair level of functional similarity between the mechanistic components of plant and animal apoptosis. Although genome scan of Arabidopsis thaliana seems to rule out the existence of major mammalian apoptotic counterparts in plants, the identification of caspase like proteins and other structural homologs (metacaspases) together with mildly conserved apoptotic players like Bax-1 inhibitor may seemed to suggest some degree of common grounds both in execution and in the regulation of the cell death phenomenon. The overall review of the available data pertaining to mechanism of PCD in plants is at best inclined to support an ancestral relationship with animal apoptosis rather than any common regulational strategies. The establishment of mechanistic details of the phenomenon in plants is certain to throw up many surprises to necessitate a fresh review of this intriguing phenomenon. Metacaspases and Paracaspases having been ruled out to possess caspase activity is the beginning for this surprise to unfold.
Programmed cell death or apoptosis: Do animals and plants share anything in common
Biotechnology and Molecular Biology Reviews, 2013
Plants, animals and several unicellular eukaryotes use programmed cell death (PCD) for defense and developmental mechanisms. While cell death pathways in animals have been well characterized, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanism of such a strategy in plants. Although, very few regulatory proteins or protein domains have been identified as conserved across all eukaryotic PCD forms, still plants and animals share many hallmarks of PCD, both at cellular and molecular levels. Morphological and biochemical features like chromatin condensation, nuclear DNA fragmentation, and participation of caspase like proteases in plant PCD appear to be similar across the eukaryotic kingdom and in conformity with the process in metazoans as well. Transgenic expression of mammalian antiand pro-apoptotic proteins in plants has been shown to influence the regulatory pathways of cell death activation and suppression, indicating the existence of functional counterparts of such genes in plants, several of which have now been cloned and characterized to various extents. This suggests that despite differences, there may be a fair level of functional similarity between the mechanistic components of plant and animal apoptosis. Although genome scan of Arabidopsis thaliana seems to rule out the existence of major mammalian apoptotic counterparts in plants, the identification of caspase like proteins and other structural homolgs (metacaspases) together with mildly conserved apoptotic players like Bax-1 inhibitor may seemed to suggest some degree of common grounds both in execution and in the regulation of the cell death phenomenon. The overall review of the available data pertaining to mechanism of PCD in plants primarily supports an ancestral relationship with animal apoptosis rather than any common executional or regulational strategies. The establishment of mechanistic details of the phenomenon in plants is certain to throw up many surprises to necessitate a fresh review of this intriguing phenomenon. Metacaspases and Paracaspases having been ruled out to possess caspase activity is the beginning for this surprise to unfold.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2002
The sphinganine analog mycotoxin, AAL-toxin, induces a death process in plant and animal cells that shows apoptotic morphology. In nature, the AAL-toxin is the primary determinant of the Alternaria stem canker disease of tomato, thus linking apoptosis to this disease caused by Alternaria alternata f. sp. lycopersici. The product of the baculovirus p35 gene is a specific inhibitor of a class of cysteine proteases termed caspases, and naturally functions in infected insects. Transgenic tomato plants bearing the p35 gene were protected against AAL-toxin-induced death and pathogen infection. Resistance to the toxin and pathogen co-segregated with the expression of the p35 gene through the T3 generation, as did resistance to A. alternata, Colletotrichum coccodes, and Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato. The p35 gene, stably transformed into tomato roots by Agrobacterium rhizogenes, protected roots against a 30-fold greater concentration of AAL-toxin than control roots tolerated. Transgenic expression of a p35 binding site mutant (DQMD to DRIL), inactive against animal caspases-3, did not protect against AAL-toxin. These results indicate that plants possess a protease with substrate-site specificity that is functionally equivalent to certain animal caspases. A biological conclusion is that diverse plant pathogens co-opt apoptosis during infection, and that transgenic modification of pathways regulating programmed cell death in plants is a potential strategy for engineering broadspectrum disease resistance in plants.
Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2003
Plants, animals, and several branches of unicellular eukaryotes use programmed cell death (PCD) for defense or developmental mechanisms. This argues for a common ancestral apoptotic system in eukaryotes. However, at the molecular level, very few regulatory proteins or protein domains have been identified as conserved across all eukaryotic PCD forms. A very important goal is to determine which molecular components may be used in the execution of PCD in plants, which have been conserved during evolution, and which are plant-specific. Using Arabidopsis thaliana, we have shown that UV radiation can induce apoptosis-like changes at the cellular level and that a UV experimental system is relevant to the study of PCD in plants. We report here that UV induction of PCD required light and that a protease cleaving the caspase substrate Asp-Glu-Val-Asp (DEVDase activity) was induced within 30 min and peaked at 1 h. This DEVDase appears to be related to animal caspases at the biochemical level, being insensitive to broad-range cysteine protease inhibitors. In addition, caspase-1 and caspase-3 inhibitors and the pan-caspase inhibitor p35 were able to suppress DNA fragmentation and cell death. These results suggest that a YVADase activity and an inducible DEVDase activity possibly mediate DNA fragmentation during plant PCD induced by UV overexposure. We also report that At-DAD1 and At-DAD2, the two A. thaliana homologs of Defender against Apoptotic Death-1, could suppress the onset of DNA fragmentation in A. thaliana, supporting an involvement of the endoplasmic reticulum in this form of the plant PCD pathway.
Constitutive caspase-like machinery executes programmed cell death in plant cells
Cell Death and Differentiation, 2002
Themorphologicalfeaturesofprogrammedcelldeath(PCD)and themolecularmachineryinvolvedinthedeathprograminanimal cellshavebeenintensivelystudied.Inplants,celldeathhasbeen widely observed in predictable patterns throughout differentiation processes and in defense responses. Several lines of evidence argue that plant PCD shares some characteristic features with animal PCD. However, the molecular components oftheplantPCDmachineryremain obscure.Wehaveshownthat plant cells undergo PCD by constitutively expressed molecular machinery upon induction with the fungal elicitor EIX or by staurosporine in the presence of cycloheximide. The permeable peptide caspase inhibitors, zVAD-fmk and zBocD-fmk, blocked PCD induced by EIX or staurosporine. Using labeled VAD-fmk, active caspase-like proteases were detected within intact cells and in cell extracts of the PCD-induced cells. These findings suggest that caspase-like proteases are responsible for the execution of PCD in plant cells.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), 2023
Cellular DNA can be damaged by endogenous or exogenous genotoxins. In plants, reduced genome stability can have a detrimental effect on development. Here, we show the identification of the fan mutant from an ethyl-methanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenized Arabidopsis Col-0 population on the basis of its short root and small leaf phenotype. The causative mutation was identified as a G-to-A transition at the border of the eighth intron and ninth exon of the At5G61330 gene, resulting in a mis-spliced mRNA transcript. FAN is a homolog of the mammalian AATF/Che-1 protein consisting of conserved AATF/Che-1 and TRAUB domains in Arabidopsis. In the fan mutant, under normal conditions, we detected DNA damage and cell death response at the root tip, while hypersensitivity to the exogenously applied hydroxyurea (HU) compared to Col-0, suggesting that FAN plays a role in the DNA damage response (DDR). Furthermore, our results showed that FAN is involved in DDR pathway regulated by ATM/RAD53-RELATED (ATR). Taken together, these suggest that FAN is required for meristem maintenance and the DNA damage response.