Molecular analysis of two ethylene-induced cell death processes in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

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Cell death is an intrinsic part of plant development. It can be developmentally regulated or be induced by environmental signals. Flooded plants suffer from lack of oxygen. To avoid hypoxic stress, well adapted plants such as rice improve their oxygen supply through growth of roots at the stem and through formation of internal air spaces (aerenchyma). Growth of roots is preceded by death of epidermal cells that cover the root primordia. Epidermal cell death as well as aerenchyma formation are regulated by the plant hormone ethylene. We previously identified morphological and molecular differences between epidermal cells that undergo cell death and those that do not. In the current project we attempt to define the cellular characteristics and the signaling pathway of epidermal cell death. We will functionally characterize genes that were found to be differentially active in dying versus non-dying cells with a focus on genes which determine cell identity. Such genes may be responsible for the ability to undergo cell death and for the local confinement of cell death. With the help of mutants, genes that have been recognized as being important for epidermal cell death will be studied in aerenchyma formation, which represents a second ethylene-induced local cell death process. This comparative part of the study should help pinpoint common and diverging pathways in the signaling and execution of cell death by ethylene.