A tomato metacaspase gene is upregulated during programmed cell death in Botrytis cinerea-infected leaves.

HOEBERICHTS, FA, TEN HAVE, A AND WOLTERING, EJ

PLANTA

Año: 2003 vol. 217 p. 517 - 522

0032-0935

          Programmed cell death (PCD) in plant cells isoften accompanied by biochemical and morphologicalhallmarks similar to those of animal apoptosis. However,orthologs of animal caspases, cysteinyl aspartate-specificproteases that constitute the core component of animalapoptosis, have not yet been identified in plants. Recentstudies have revealed the presence of a family of genesencoding proteins with distant homology to mammaliancaspases, designated metacaspases, in the Arabidopsisthaliana genome. Here, we describe the isolation ofLeMCA1, a type-II metacaspase cDNA clone fromtomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). BLAST analysisdemonstrated that the LeMCA1 gene is located in closevicinity of several genes that have been linked with PCD.Southern analysis indicated the existence of at least onemore metacaspase in the tomato genome. LeMCA1mRNA levels rapidly increased upon infection of tomatoleaves with Botrytis cinerea, a fungal pathogen thatinduces cell death in several plant species. LeMCA1 wasnot upregulated during chemical-induced PCD insuspension-cultured tomato cells.