PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH IN

PLANTS
PRESENTED BY:SHAILJA GUPTA
L-2008-BS-149M
• What is PCD?
• PCD – programmed cell
death
• It is death of a cell in any
form, mediated by an
intracellular program.
• It is an active process which
occurs during development
and in response to
enviormental cues.
• (PCD) is more commonly
known as apoptosis.
• The term apoptosis comes
from plant kingdom from
old Greek apoptosis that
originally means the loss of
petals or leaves.
• If cells are no more
needed, they die by
activating intracellular
death program
 history
• The concept of "programmed cell-death" was used by 
Lockshin & Williams in 1964 in relation to insect tissue
development, around eight years before "apoptosis" was
coined. Since then, PCD has become the more general of
these two terms.
• PCD has been the subject of increasing attention and
research efforts. This trend has been highlighted with the
award of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 to Sydney Brenner (United Kingdom), H. Robert Horvitz
 (US) and John E. Sulston (UK).
• image of an embryo
with apoptotic cells:-
•  Three cells indicated by
arrows underwent
programmed cell death
in a bean/comma stage
embryo and exhibit a
refractile, raised-
button-like appearance.
 cell death is accomplished by two processes:-

1. Necrosis,oncosis,traumatic cell death,accidental cell

death,necrotic cell death, toxicological cell death – cell
death due to acute exogenous factors such as stress,
disease, toxin, trauma etc.
2. programmed cell death, physiological cell death,
apotopsis, cell suicide, necrobiosis, shrinkage necrosis,
autoschizis – cell death due to endogenous factors.
• Stress can cause type of cell death termed as
necrosis whereas sub lethal stress can induce
programmed cell death.
Two main types of PCD are there:-
• Apoptosis or type I • Autophagic cell death or
programmed cell death type II programmed cell
is characterized death exhibits extensive
by condensation of autophagic degradation
cytoplasm and of Golgi
preservation of apparatus, polyribosome
organelles, s and endoplasmatic
essentially without reticulum, which
autophagic precedes
degradation. nuclear destruction.
Differentiating between necrosis
and PCD
 • Cells that are damaged and unable to function
correctly undergo PCD. This removes
potentially harmful cells and prevents them
PCD and Necrosis from multiplying and spreading. However, not
all damaged cells undergo PCD; cells that are
damaged by stresses at overwhelming levels
undergo necrosis instead .
• Necrosis is a nonphysiological process
involving cell swelling, lysis, and the
inflammatory leakage of cell contents.
Moreover, whereas PCD occurs during
development and is regulated by a complex
mechanism, necrosis is not normally associated
with development, does not require the
activity of proteases and nucleases dedicated
to controlled cell disassembly, does not
operate through gene-dependent signal
transduction pathways, and does not require
Ca2+ or changes in protein phosphotylation.
 apoptosis necrosis

Pattern of death Single cells Groups of neighbouring cells

Cell size shrinkage swelling

Plasma membrane Fragmentation smoothing

Preserved continuity
Blebbed
Increased membrane
permeability

mitochondria Contents released into Swelling disordered structure

cytoplasm
Cytochrome c; Apaf1
Structure relatively preserved
contracted
 apoptosis necrosis

Organelle shape contracted swelling

nuclei Clumps and fragmented Membrane disruption

DNA degradation Internucleosomal cleavage Diffuse and random

Free 3‛ ends
Laddering on electrophoresis
DNA appears in cytoplasm

Cell degradation Phagocytosis Macrophage invasion

No inflammation inflammation
Roles of PCD in plants
 In development
• In monocot seeds aleurone
cells form a secretory tissue
that releases hydrolases to
digest the endosperm and
nourish the embryo.
• Aleurone cells are
unnecessary for
postembryonic development
and die as soon as
germination is complete.
• physiological evidence
suggest that their death
involves PCD.
 Contd….
• in the aleurone, secretory
processes and cell death are
stimulated by gibberellin (GA),
whereas abscisic acid (ABA)
blocks the effects of GA and
retards seed germination and
cell death
• Moreover, an elevation in
cytosolic Ca2+ occurs in
aleurone cells treated with GA ,
suggesting that a signal
transduction pathway controls
secretion and cell death.
 In root cap cells
• A cap of cells protects the root
apical meristem during seed
germination and seedling
growth.
• Cell death occurs in root caps
when roots are grown in water,
showing that cell death is a
normal part of development
and not a consequence of
abrasion during soil
penetration.
• PCD is an integral part of root
cap development
 • Vascular plants transport water in
columns of specialized dead cells
In TE cells termed TEs.
• Differentiation of TEs involves cell
elongation, the deposition of cell
wall components, including lignin,
and autolysis .
• Autolysis begins as the
cytoplasm and nuclei become
lobed, condensed,and shrunken
and ends as the cytoplasm breaks
into small packets . cell death in
TEs requires protein synthesis.
 During germination
• Apoptosis occurs during the
germination of plants and it is also
formed in the seed storage tissues.
• Endosperm supplies nutrients to
the embryo for development and
germination and undergoes PCD.
• This process generally associated
with lytic enzyme activities, for
instance -amylase is secreted from
aleurone layer which surrounds
the endosperm
• PCD occurs in a gibberellic acid
dependent
 During reproduction
• Unpollinated flowers are fully thrown away.
• Ovaries with fertilized egg cells in ovules on the
same plant are retained forming fruits while the
other parts; petals,sepals or tepals fall off.
• Stigmas and pistils may also be eliminated.
• In apomictic species, the fruits develop without
fertilization, which means that the ovaries with
ovules are retained forming fruit, but the
otherflower parts are eliminated.
• PCd is involved in the formation
of female gametes in seed plants.
• Single meiotic division gives four
haploid megaspore cells, three of
them undergo apoptosis,
remaining one have two
additional mitotic division and
bring to egg and associated cells
of the embryo (Bell, 1996).
• Apoptosis is also involved in the
formation of male sexual organs.
• Tapetum layer is surrounding the
pollen during maturation
undergoes apoptosis .
• The growth of the pollen tube through the pistil is
associated by selective cell death.
• Therefore pistil cells along the growth way of the
pollen tube undergo apoptosis while the rest of the
tissue stays intact .
• Two synergid cells are present at the entry to the
egg sack, one of them undergoes apoptosis for
arriving pollen tube to enter and release sperm
cells.
 During embryogenesis
• Cell death within the embryo does occur
as part of its normal development and
includes the death of scutellar cells
surrounding the developing
radicle,death of suspensor and death of
nucellus from which the egg cell
originates.
• The death of these cells is essential for
the final development of the embryo.
• The transient endosperm undergoes a
cell death that is followed by its re
absorption during embryogenesis that is
thought to facilitate embryo growth,
whereas in other species in which the
endosperm is persistent, it survives as a
part of the mature seed.
 During somatic embryogenesis
• Cultured cells of some plant
species can be induced to
develop into somatic
embryos.
• In embryogenic
suspensioncultures,totipoten
t cells divide asymmetrically
into cell pairs,one member
of which stops synthesizing
DMA and dies,whereas the
other member goes on to
establish an embryo.
 PCD during vegetative period
• cells die at early stages of leaf
development, resulting in the
formation of holes in the mature
leaf .
• Sclerenchyma cells are dead
because thick cell walls perform
the mechanical function.
• Cork is constituted of characteristic
cells with thick suberinised layer of
the cell wall.
• Suberin combined with lack of
intercellular spaces, protects
internal tissues against dessication.
• The protoplast is no longer needed, therefore
it is eliminated. The continuous growth of the
stem is also result with the cell death.
• Cell division in the cambium layer causes cell
death in the cork layer, that is replaced with
the ruptured epidermis and also in
parenchyma cells at the stem pith.
 Role in xylogenesis
• Tracheal elements
(vessels/tracheids) are composed of
a series of hollow dead cells.
• After the formation of secondary
walls tracheal elements lose their
cellular contents to become empty
dead cells. living tracheary elements
demonstrated that rapid
• nuclear degradation is triggered by
vacuolar rupture. Nucleoids in
chloroplasts are also degraded
rapidly after vacuole rupture.
• Secondary wall lignification is
initiated before the vacuole rupture.
• xylem (the waterconducting cells) and phloem (the
nutrient-conducting cells) undergo autolysis as they
differentiate and mature.
• xylogenesis requires RNA and protein synthesis and
thus satisfies the criterion of being an active
process.
• the cell death is entirely cell autonomous since the
dying cells can influence their neighbors to
differentiate.
 Contd…
• Relative to the cytoplasm of living cells , the
cytoplasm in the dead cells is condensed and
shrunken.
• In some dead cells, the cytoplasm is broken
into small, membrane-sealed packets, which
suggests that the cells have undergone a form
of PCD similar to apoptosis.
 Role in senescence
• Senescence is the final phase of plant vegetative and
reproductive development, preceding the widespread death
of cells and organs.
• Senescence involves the active turnover and recapture of
cellular material for use in other organs
• Membrane integrity and cellular compartmentalization are
maintained until late into the senescence process, suggesting
that there is little or no leakage of cellular contents .
• Senescence, which can be induced by ethylene, requires
nuclear functions and involves an increase in the generation
of 02-and Hz02.
 Role of hexokinase in PCd
• PCD is a major factor in the life of a cell, glucose metabolism (and
hexokinase activity) also plays a key role in PCD.
• The first step in glucose metabolism, ATP-dependent
phosphorylation to yield glucose-6-phosphate, is catalyzed by
hexokinase.
•  Plants and animals contain a number of isozymes of hexokinase,
which differ in subcellular localization and in their catalytic
and regulatory properties, and selective expression of the
various hexokinases is thought to be a major factor in the
regulation of glucose metabolism (Wilson, 2003).
• Thus, hexokinase is well-positioned to be a major
player in controlling life and death processes within the cell.
 Interactions with enviornment
• Hypoxia
• Cell death can occur in the cortex of the root
and stem base response to waterlogging and
hypoxia.
• The aerated tissue so formed is termed
aerenchyma, and the internal air spaces
generated by cell death facilitate more efficient
transfer of O2 from aerial organs to
waterlogged stem bases and roots.
 Contd….
• Ethylene, which is generated in response to O2
deprivation, is the trigger for a signal
transduction pathway that leads to aerenchyma
formation.
• The existence of a signal transduction pathway
suggests that cell death during hypoxia is PCD.
• Aerenchyma formation also involves the cell
condensation and shrinkage and DNA
fragmentation that are characteristic of PCD.
 Plant – pathogen interactions
• Hypersensitive cell death occurs at the site of attempted attack
by an avirulent pathogen, and the HR leads to the formation of
a dry lesion that is clearly delimited from surrounding healthy
tissue.
• Attacks by virulent pathogens,which do not trigger the HR,
lead instead to disease.
• The bundle sheath cells surrounding veins are more
susceptible to death-inducing signals than are mesophyll cells .
• The localized deaths of bundle sheath cells may prevent
pathogens from gaining entry to the vascular system and
spreading systemically
HYPER SENSITIVE CELL DEATH
• HR cell death is an active
process in which the
accumulation of 02- and
H202 leads to an elevation
in cytosolic Ca2+ and
triggers a protein kinase-
mediated cell death
processthat is similar
physiologically to PCD.
• The HR cell death itself is
under genetic control.
 SIGNALS FOR APOPTOSIS
• decrease in mitochondrial transmembrane potential
• exposure of phosphatidylserine in the plasma
• Membrane.
• These events are followed by the activation of
proteases,phospholipases and phosphatases.
• Calcium role is also important.
• The activation of nucleases leads to cleavage of nuclear
DNA .
• Internucleosomal DNA cleavage results in the formation
of small fragments