Yariv reagent treatment induces programmed cell death in Arabidopsis cell cultures and implicates arabinogalactan protein involvement

• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-313x.1999.00544.x
• Publication Date: 2003-03-12T21:57:44Z
• Authors: Minggeng Gao; Allan M. Showalter
• Keywords: Arabinogalactan; Fragmentation

Summary Arabinogalactan proteins (AGPs) are a family of highly glycosylated, hydroxyproline‐rich glycoproteins impli‐ cated in various aspects plant growth and development. (β‐D‐glucosyl) 3 (β‐D‐galactosyl) Yariv phenylglycosides, commonly known as reagents, specifically bind AGPs non‐covalent manner. Here reagent was added to Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspension cultures determined induce programmed death (PCD) by three criteria: (i) DNA fragmentation detected terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase‐mediated dUTP nick‐end labeling (TUNEL) 3′‐OH groups; (ii) inter‐ nucleosomal visualized genomic Southern blotting; (iii) structural changes characteristic PCD including cytoplasmic shrinkage condensation, chromatin condensation nuclear membrane blebbing. These findings implicate AGP involvement plants, presumably perturbation located at the plasma membrane–cell wall interface.