Endosperm degradation during seed development of Echinocystis lobata (Cucurbitaceae) as a manifestation of programmed cell death (PCD) in plants.

Programmed cell death (PCD) is an active, genetically controlled process that ultimately leads to elimination of unnecessary or damaged cells from multicellular organism. It occurs during normal growth and development or in response to a variety of environmental triggers and is indispensable for survival of the organism. In Echinocystis lobata the endosperm, an ephemeral tissue in angiosperm plants, undergoes distinct cytological, physiological and molecular changes during seed development and maturation. As a result, mature seeds are deprived of this tissue. The endosperm was analyzed at the consecutive stages of seed development. The morphological changes of cells were studied at light and electron microscope levels. In this paper we report that endosperm cells undergo morphological and biochemical changes characteristic of apoptosis, a particular type of PCD, i.e. cell shrinkage, chromatin condensation, nuclear fragmentation, and cytoplasm degradation, while the ultrastructure of mitochondria seems to be less changed. Furthermore, the progression of DNA degradation has been shown by agarose gel electrophoresis (ladder pattern of DNA fragmentseparation), TUNEL and comet assay. It isconcluded that during seed maturation, endosperm degradation process is accompanied by typical PCD-related changes of cell morphology and internucleosomal DNA cleavage.

Different DNA methylation pattern in A and B chromosomes of Crepis capillaris detected by in situ nick-translation. Comparison with molecular methods.

Experiments were performed on Crepis capillaris callus lines with 0, 1 and 2 B chromosomes and on hairy root lines without or with 1 and 2 B chromosomes. Comparison of HPLC results for DNA from calli differing in number of B chromosomes did not reveal any significant differences in methylation level (30.4 +/- 1.1%, 30.9 +/- 1.2%, 31.7 +/- 1.7% in lines without or with one or two B chromosomes respectively) which could be attributed to the number of B chromosomes. Restriction patterns obtained after DNA digestion with HhaI, HpaII, MspI or HaeIII (i.e. restriction enzymes sensitive to cytosine methylation) were similar in calli and apical root segments and also did not depend on the presence or number of B chromosomes. Methylation of B chromosomes higher than that of A chromosomes was demonstrated by fluorescent in situ nick translation driven by HpaII, MspI or HaeIII in metaphase chromosomes. After short digestion (I and 3 h), B chromosomes, in contrast to A chromosomes, were weakly labelled or not labelled at all, which indicates longer distances between target sequences containing unmethylated cytosine in the former.