Plant Cell Cultures as a Tool to Study Programmed Cell Death

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a genetically controlled suicide process present in all living beings with the scope of eliminating cells unnecessary or detrimental for the proper development of the organism. In plants, PCD plays a pivotal role in many developmental processes such as sex determinatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Massimo Malerba, Raffaella Cerana
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-02-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/4/2166
Description
Summary:Programmed cell death (PCD) is a genetically controlled suicide process present in all living beings with the scope of eliminating cells unnecessary or detrimental for the proper development of the organism. In plants, PCD plays a pivotal role in many developmental processes such as sex determination, senescence, and aerenchyma formation and is involved in the defense responses against abiotic and biotic stresses. Thus, its study is a main goal for plant scientists. However, since PCD often occurs in a small group of inaccessible cells buried in a bulk of surrounding uninvolved cells, its study in whole plant or complex tissues is very difficult. Due to their uniformity, accessibility, and reproducibility of application of stress conditions, cultured cells appear a useful tool to investigate the different aspects of plant PCD. In this review, we summarize how plant cell cultures can be utilized to clarify the plant PCD process.
ISSN:1661-6596
1422-0067