[Seminars] PSB event reminder
contact at psb.vib-ugent.be
contact at psb.vib-ugent.be
Sun Mar 31 14:10:01 CEST 2013
Calendar Name: seminars
Scheduled for: Tuesday, April 2 2013, 14:00 - 15:30
Event text: Dr Peter Bozhkov
Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics
Uppsala BioCenter
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
and Linnean Center for Plant Biology
Uppsala
SWEDEN
Details: Autophagy: a common mediator of cell death and
organismal longevity in plants
ABSTRACT
Animals have evolved sophisticated machinery to remove
apoptotic bodies and clean up necrotic debris for
damping inflammatory response. Plants appear more
pragmatic, as they utilize dying cells and cell corpses
to construct their bodies, as well as to store and
transport nutrients, growth factors, and secondary
metabolites. The presence of rigid cell walls and the
absence of phagocytosis permit cell corpses to stay
post-mortem for a very long time. Disassembly of plant
cells during developmental programmed cell death (PCD)
is likewise a slow process, which can take up to several
days. This mode of PCD is reliant on the gradual
engulfment of the cytoplasm by the lytic vacuoles and is
hence called vacuolar cell death. We have found that
autophagy a major cellular catabolic process - plays a
central role in the execution of vacuolar cell death in
the Norway spruce embryo-suspensors. The role of
autophagy is cell-autonomous, since down-regulation of
ATG genes specifically in the suspensor cells acts as a
switch from vacuolar cell death to necrosis, which
impairs embryonic patterning and leads to developmental
arrest.
It has become well known in the last few years that
yeasts, worms, flies and mammals with enhanced level of
basal autophagy live longer, whereas suppression of
autophagy results in premature death or shortened
lifespan. Current studies in my laboratory establish
autophagy as an important process in the control of
plant phenology and longevity. We have found that
changes in the expression of some ATG genes can modulate
autophagic flux in the leaves of Arabidopsis, which in
turn affects phenology and lifespan of the plants.
Interestingly, manipulation of both autophagic flux and
organismal lifespan can also be achieved in wild type
Columbia plants by changing their caloric status through
increasing or decreasing light intensity.
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