The useful vase life then extends until stage 6. Tobacco TBY-2 cells stained by Apoptag. Note the increased frequency of lateral root primordia compared with the wild type. We have focused on genes of inferred biochemical or cellular function as markers for the senescence process considering in particular protein degradation, lipid metabolism and genes associated with cell death processes. The results from our work suggest that senescence in Alstroemeria may start very early in floral development.
Ethylene is known to induce cell death for example in the production of aerenchyma.
In yeast and animal systems, important links between cell-cycle progression and cell death are being found. Figure 5 There is also a further, but less pronounced peak of mortality during S phase. Many of the genes controlling the cell cycle in plants have been isolated, however, cdc25 which is an important phosphatase regulating the transition from G2 to M phase has not. We have shown that the fission yeast cell cycle gene cdc25 introduced into tobacco has the effect of increasing the frequency of lateral root primordia compared to the wild type suggesting that the gene product is interacting with the plant cell cycle machinery. We are now using the yeast cell cycle gene, cdc25, as a bait to identify regulatory cell cycle genes using 2-Hybrid technology.