Skip Navigation


JXB Advance Access originally published online on October 17, 2007
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(3):445-451; doi:10.1093/jxb/erm189
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
59/3/445    most recent
erm189v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gunawardena, A. H. L. A. N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gunawardena, A. H. L. A. N.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Gunawardena, A. H. L. A. N.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author [2007]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Focus Review Paper

Programmed cell death and tissue remodelling in plants

Arunika H. L. A. N. Gunawardena*

Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 4J1

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: arunika.gunawardena{at}dal.ca

The use of programmed cell death (PCD) to remodel plants at the cellular, tissue, and organ levels is particularly fascinating and occurs in such processes as tracheary element differentiation, lysigenous aerenchyma formation, development of functionally unisexual flowers from bisexual floral primordia, and leaf morphogenesis. The formation of complex leaf shape through the use of PCD is a rare event across vascular plants and occurs only in a few species of Monstera and related genera, and in the lace plant (Aponogeton madagascariensis). During early development, the lace plant leaf forms a pattern of equidistantly positioned perforations across the surface of the leaf, giving it a lattice-like appearance. Due to the accessibility and predictability of this process, the lace plant provides highly suitable material for the study of developmentally regulated PCD in plants. A sterile lace plant culture system has been successfully established, providing material free of micro-organisms for experimental study. The potential role of ethylene and caspase-like activity in developmentally regulated PCD in the lace plant is currently under investigation, with preliminary results indicating that both may play a role in the cell death pathway.

Key words: Lace plant, leaf morphogenesis, perforations, programmed cell death, remodelling

Received 11 May 2007; Revised 30 June 2007 Accepted 18 July 2007


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J Exp BotHome page
S. Farage-Barhom, S. Burd, L. Sonego, R. Perl-Treves, and A. Lers
Expression analysis of the BFN1 nuclease gene promoter during senescence, abscission, and programmed cell death-related processes
J. Exp. Bot., September 1, 2008; 59(12): 3247 - 3258.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.