title: Plant programmed cell death: can't live with it; can't live without it.
abstract: The decision of whether a cell should live or die is fundamental for the wellbeing of all organisms. Despite intense investigation into cell growth and proliferation, only recently has the essential and equally important idea that cells control/programme their own demise for proper maintenance of cellular homeostasis gained recognition. Furthermore, even though research into programmed cell death (PCD) has been an extremely active area of research there are significant gaps in our understanding of the process in plants. In this review, we discuss PCD during plant development and pathogenesis, and compare/contrast this with mammalian apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology, Texas A&M University, Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Marty
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dickman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D008954:Models, Biological; D059828:Plant Cells; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins