What about the role of autophagy in PCD?.

摘要

Here we discuss to what extent the concept ‘autophagic cell death’ applies to programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. When using the classical definition of ‘autophagic cell death’ the evidence is as yet absent. We examine a possible redefinition of the term. An interesting discussion has developed in recent issues of Trends in Plant Science, on the possible role of autophagy as an executioner of programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. Andrew Love et al. [1] suggested that autophagy is responsible for the bulk of cellular dismantling and remobilization of various compounds, during senescence, which is a type of developmental PCD. Jean-Luc Cacas and Mark Diamond [2] did not concur. They argued (i) that autophagic cell death has been defined, in animal science, by autophagic vacuolization of the cytoplasm, and (ii) that a causal role of autophagy had not been demonstrated in plant PCD. They claimed that autophagic structures, unlike other vesicles, possess a double membrane. So unless a double membrane has been shown in the vesicles involved in the cellular degradation, they asserted, one cannot speak of autophagy.