Mediated Cell Death (mediated + cell_death)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Targeted cell-ablation in Xenopus embryos using the conditional, toxic viral protein M2(H37A)

DEVELOPMENTAL DYNAMICS, Issue 8 2007
Stuart J. Smith
Abstract Harnessing toxic proteins to destroy selective cells in an embryo is an attractive method for exploring details of cell fate and cell,cell interdependency. However, no existing "suicide gene" system has proved suitable for aquatic vertebrates. We use the M2(H37A) toxic ion channel of the influenza-A virus to induce cell-ablations in Xenopus laevis. M2(H37A) RNA injected into blastomeres of early stage embryos causes death of their progeny by late-blastula stages. Moreover, M2(H37A) toxicity can be controlled using the M2 inhibitor rimantadine. We have tested the ablation system using transgenesis to target M2(H37A) expression to selected cells in the embryo. Using the myocardial MLC2 promoter, M2(H37A)-mediated cell death causes dramatic loss of cardiac structure and function by stage 39. With the LURP1 promoter, we induce cell-ablations of macrophages. These experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of M2(H37A)-ablation in Xenopus and its utility in monitoring the progression of developmental abnormalities during targeted cell death experiments. Developmental Dynamics 236:2159,2171, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Altered sensitivity to excitotoxic cell death and glutamate receptor expression between two commonly studied mouse strains

JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, Issue 12 2010
Rozzy Finn
Abstract Alterations in glutamatergic synapse function have been implicated in the pathogenesis of many different neurological disorders, including ischemia, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Huntington's disease. While studying glutamate receptor function in juvenile Batten disease on the C57BL/6J and 129S6/SvEv mouse backgrounds, we noticed differences unlikely to be due to mutation difference alone. We report here that primary cerebellar granule cell cultures from C57BL/6J mice are more sensitive to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-mediated cell death. Moreover, sensitivity to AMPA-mediated excitotoxicity is more variable and is dependent on the treatment conditions and age of the cultures. Glutamate receptor surface expression levels examined in vitro by in situ ELISA and in vivo by Western blot in surface cross-linked cerebellar samples indicated that these differences in sensitivity likely are due to strain-dependent differences in cell surface receptor expression levels. We propose that differences in glutamate receptor expression and in excitotoxic vulnerability should be taken into consideration in the context of characterizing disease models on the C57BL/6J and 129S6/SvEv mouse backgrounds. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


SGT1 positively regulates the process of plant cell death during both compatible and incompatible plant,pathogen interactions

MOLECULAR PLANT PATHOLOGY, Issue 5 2010
KERI WANG
SUMMARY SGT1 (suppressor of G2 allele of Skp1), an interactor of SCF (Skp1-Cullin-F-box) ubiquitin ligase complexes that mediate protein degradation, plays an important role at both G1,S and G2,M cell cycle transitions in yeast, and is highly conserved throughout eukaryotes. Plant SGT1 is required for both resistance (R) gene-mediated disease resistance and nonhost resistance to certain pathogens. Using virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in Nicotiana benthamiana, we demonstrate that SGT1 positively regulates the process of cell death during both host and nonhost interactions with various pathovars of Pseudomonas syringae. Silencing of NbSGT1 in N. benthamiana plants delays the induction of hypersensitive response (HR)-mediated cell death against nonhost pathogens and the development of disease-associated cell death caused by the host pathogen P. syringae pv. tabaci. Our results further demonstrate that NbSGT1 is required for Erwinia carotovora - and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum -induced disease-associated cell death. Overexpression of NbSGT1 in N. benthamiana accelerates the development of HR during R gene-mediated disease resistance and nonhost resistance. Our data also indicate that SGT1 is required for pathogen-induced cell death, but is not always necessary for the restriction of bacterial multiplication in planta. Therefore, we conclude that SGT1 is an essential component affecting the process of cell death during both compatible and incompatible plant,pathogen interactions. [source]


A mutation in the Arabidopsis mTERF-related plastid protein SOLDAT10 activates retrograde signaling and suppresses 1O2 -induced cell death

THE PLANT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2009
Rasa Meskauskiene
Summary The conditional flu mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana generates singlet oxygen (1O2) in plastids during a dark-to-light shift. Seedlings of flu bleach and die, whereas mature plants stop growing and develop macroscopic necrotic lesions. Several suppressor mutants, dubbed singlet oxygen-linked death activator (soldat), were identified that abrogate 1O2 -mediated cell death of flu seedlings. One of the soldat mutations, soldat10, affects a gene encoding a plastid-localized protein related to the human mitochondrial transcription termination factor mTERF. As a consequence of this mutation, plastid-specific rRNA levels decrease and protein synthesis in plastids of soldat10 is attenuated. This disruption of chloroplast homeostasis in soldat10 seedlings affects communication between chloroplasts and the nucleus and leads to changes in the steady-state concentration of nuclear gene transcripts. The soldat10 seedlings suffer from mild photo-oxidative stress, as indicated by the constitutive up-regulation of stress-related genes. Even though soldat10/flu seedlings overaccumulate the photosensitizer protochlorophyllide in the dark and activate the expression of 1O2 -responsive genes after a dark-to-light shift they do not show a 1O2 -dependent cell death response. Disturbance of chloroplast homeostasis in emerging soldat10/flu seedlings seems to antagonize a subsequent 1O2 -mediated cell death response without suppressing 1O2 -dependent retrograde signaling. The results of this work reveal the unexpected complexity of what is commonly referred to as ,plastid signaling'. [source]


High humidity suppresses ssi4 -mediated cell death and disease resistance upstream of MAP kinase activation, H2O2 production and defense gene expression

THE PLANT JOURNAL, Issue 6 2004
Fasong Zhou
Summary The Arabidopsis ssi4 mutant, which exhibits spontaneous lesion formation, constitutive expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes and enhanced resistance to virulent bacterial and oomycete pathogens, contains a gain-of-function mutation in a TIR-NBS-LRR type R gene. Epistatic analyses revealed that both PR gene expression and disease resistance are activated via a salicylic acid (SA)- and EDS1 -dependent, but NPR1 - and NDR1 -independent signaling pathway. In this study, we demonstrate that in moderate relative humidity (RH; 60%), the ssi4 mutant accumulates H2O2 and SA prior to lesion formation and displays constitutive activation of the MAP kinases AtMPK6 and AtMPK3. It also constitutively expresses a variety of defense-associated genes, including those encoding the WRKY transcription factors AtWRKY29 and AtWRKY6, the MAP kinases AtMPK6 and AtMPK3, the powdery mildew R proteins RPW8.1 and RPW8.2, EDS1 and PR proteins. All of these ssi4 -induced responses, as well as the chlorotic, stunted morphology and enhanced disease resistance phenotype, are suppressed by high RH (95%) growth conditions. Thus, a humidity sensitive factor (HSF) appears to function at an early point in the ssi4 signaling pathway. All ssi4 phenotypes, except for MAP kinase activation, also were suppressed by the eds1-1 mutation. Thus, ssi4 -induced MAP kinase activation occurs downstream of the HSF but either upstream of EDS1 or on a separate branch of the ssi4 signaling pathway. SA is a critical signaling component in ssi4 -mediated defense responses. However, exogenously supplied SA failed to restore lesion formation in high RH-grown ssi4 plants, although it induced defense gene expression. Thus, additional signals also are involved. [source]