Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2018, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (4): 445-446.DOI: 10.11983/CBB18094

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Chinese Scientists Have Made a Great Breakthrough in the Mechanism of Programmed Cell Death

Zhang Xian-sheng*()   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian 271018, China
  • Received:2018-04-10 Accepted:2018-05-01 Online:2018-07-01 Published:2018-09-11
  • Contact: Zhang Xian-sheng
  • About author:† These authors contributed equally to this paper

Abstract: Programmed cell death (PCD) plays important roles in regulating plant development and stress responses, and the reactive oxygen species (ROS) acts as the key regulator in PCD process. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be addressed. Recently, the Jiayang Li’s group from Institute of Genetics & Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences has made great breakthroughs in the mechanism of PCD regulated by ROS. The group demonstrated that malate shuttling from the chloroplast to mitochondrion triggers ROS production and subsequent PCD in Arabidopsis. The study provides novel results for understanding the mechanism of PCD regulation.

Key words: programmed cell death, reactive oxygen species, malate, chloroplast, mitochondrion