Signaling unmasked

Abstract

Autophagy contributes to the removal of harmful cellular refuse, whereas catalase plays an important protective role by detoxifying reactive oxygen species. We recently found that autophagy and catalase are also required for promoting programmed cell death induced during plant immune responses. Here we discuss the difficulties in identifying cell death effectors, which are also required to maintain cellular homeostasis, and how their prodeath roles were unmasked using an unbiased forward genetics approach.

Keywords: :

• autophagy
• catalase
• cell death
• plant defense
• plant-microbe interactions

This article refers to:

10.4161/auto.27564

Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.