title: Ced-9 inhibits Al-induced programmed cell death and promotes Al tolerance in tobacco.
abstract: Our previous data showed that apoptotic suppressors inhibit aluminum (Al)-induced programmed cell death (PCD) and promote Al tolerance in yeast cells, however, very little is known about the underlying mechanisms, especially in plants. Here, we show that the Caenorhabditis elegans apoptotic suppressor Ced-9, a Bcl-2 homologue, inhibited both the Al-induced PCD and Al-induced activity of caspase-like vacuolar processing enzyme (VPE), a crucial executioner of PCD, in tobacco. Furthermore, we show that Ced-9 significantly alleviated Al inhibition of root elongation, decreased Al accumulation in the root tip and greatly inhibited Al-induced gene expression in early response to Al, leading to enhancing the tolerance of tobacco plants to Al toxicity. Our data suggest that Ced-9 promotes Al tolerance in plants via inhibition of Al-induced PCD, indicating that conserved negative regulators of PCD are involved in integrated regulation of cell survival and Al-induced PCD by an unidentified mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wenzhe
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jianwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Honghong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Yajuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Hongwu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Junhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Muyuan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhu