Skip Navigation


Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access originally published online on March 8, 2009
Plant and Cell Physiology 2009 50(4):719-729; doi:10.1093/pcp/pcp035
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
50/4/719    most recent
pcp035v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
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 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
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hirashima, M.
Right arrow Articles by Tanaka, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hirashima, M.
Right arrow Articles by Tanaka, A.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Hirashima, M.
Right arrow Articles by Tanaka, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following Plant and Cell Physiology issue: Special Issue Articles: Photosynthesis [View the issue table of contents]

Special Issue - Regular Paper

Light-Independent Cell Death Induced by Accumulation of Pheophorbide a in Arabidopsis thaliana

Masumi Hirashima1, Ryouichi Tanaka and Ayumi Tanaka*

Institute of Low Temperatue Science, Hokkaido University, N19 W8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0819 Japan

*Corresponding author: E-mail, ayumi{at}pop.lowtem.hokudai.ac.jp; Fax, +81-11-706-5493.


  Abstract

Tetrapyrroles are well-known photosensitizers. In plants, various intermediate molecules of tetrapyrrole metabolism have been reported to induce cell death in a light-dependent manner. In contrast to these reports, we found that pheophorbide a, a key intermediate of chlorophyll catabolism, causes cell death in complete darkness in a transgenic Arabidopsis plant, As-ACD1. In this plant, expression of mRNA for pheophorbide a oxygenase was suppressed by expression of Acd1 antisense RNA; thus, As-ACD1 accumulated an excessive amount of pheophorbide a when chlorophyll breakdown occurred. We observed that when senescence was induced by a continuous dark period, leaves of As-ACD1 plants became dehydrated. By measuring electrolyte leakage, we estimated that >50% of the leaf cells underwent cell death within a 5 d period of darkness. Light and electron microscopic observations indicated that the cellular structure had collapsed in a large population of cells. Partially covering a leaf with aluminum foil resulted in light-independent cell death in the covered region and induced bleaching in the uncovered regions. These results indicate that accumulation of pheophorbide a induces cell death under both darkness and illumination, but the mechanisms of cell death under these conditions may differ. We discuss the possible mechanism of light-independent cell death and the involvement of pheophorbide a in the signaling pathway for programmed cell death.

Keywords: Arabidopsis - Cell death - Pheophorbide a - Senescence

Abbreviations: Acd1, Accelerated cell death 1; DAB, 3,3'-diaminobenzidine; NCC, non-fluorescent chlorophyll catabolite; pFCC, primary fluorescent chlorophyll catabolite; PaO, pheophorbide a oxygenase; RCCR, red chlorophyll catabolite reductase; ROS, reactive oxygen species; WT, wild type.

1Present address, National Institute of Floricultural Science, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, 2-1 Fujimoto, Tsukuba 305-8519, Ibaraki, Japan.

(Received January 14, 2009; Accepted February 25, 2009)
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
 Plant Cell PhysiolHome page
A. Tanaka and A. Makino
Photosynthetic Research in Plant Science
Plant Cell Physiol., April 1, 2009; 50(4): 681 - 683.
[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.