HEAT STRESS INDUCES FERROPTOSIS LIKE CELL DEATH IN PLANTS

CORDOBA JUAN PABLO; BARTOLI C; STOCKWELL B; DISTEFANO A; BELLIDO A; EDUARDO JULIAN ZABALETA; DIXON S; MARTIN, M. V.; ROLDAN J; FIOL D; PAGNUSSAT G

Córdoba

Congreso; LII Reunión Anual Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2016

SAIB

In plants, regulated cell death plays critical roles during development and is essential for plant-specific responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying plant cell death remain unclear. In this work, we examined whether ferroptosis, an iron-dependent, oxidative process recently described to occur in animal cells, could be relevant to cell death in plants. Although ferroptotic cell death was not involved in reproductive or vascular development, it was implicated in heat-shock-induced regulated cell death. Analyses of heat shock treated (HS) Arabidopsis roots using DIC and TEM microscopy showed a specific morphology associated to cell death. Biochemical features that are specific for animal ferroptosis are induced in HS-Arabidopsis roots, such as the iron dependent accumulation of ROS and lipid ROS, and the depletion of glutathione and ascorbic acid. The study of the expression pattern of several genes related to cell death processes in plants and animals showed that a recently described gene (named KOD), which encodes a short peptide that regulates plant cell death is specifically regulated in HS-Arabidopsis roots. Although additional factors involved in the ferroptosis pathway remain to be identified in plants, many characteristics are conserved between plants and animal cells suggesting that ferroptosis is a conserved form of cell death.