Roadmap for the next decade of plant programmed cell death research.

Programmed cell death (PCD) is fundamentally important for plant development, abiotic stress responses and immunity, but our understanding of its regulation remains fragmented. Building a stronger research community is required to accelerate progress in this area through knowledge exchange and constructive debate. In this Viewpoint, we aim to initiate a collective effort to integrate data across a diverse set of experimental models to facilitate characterisation of the fundamental mechanisms underlying plant PCD and ultimately aid the development of a new plant cell death classification system in the future.

Plant cathepsin B, a versatile protease.

Plant proteases are essential enzymes that play key roles during crucial phases of plant life. Some proteases are mainly involved in general protein turnover and recycle amino acids for protein synthesis. Other proteases are involved in cell signalling, cleave specific substrates and are key players during important genetically controlled molecular processes.

Proximity to Photosystem II is necessary for activation of Plastid Terminal Oxidase (PTOX) for photoprotection.

The Plastid Terminal Oxidase (PTOX) is a chloroplast localized plastoquinone oxygen oxidoreductase suggested to have the potential to act as a photoprotective safety valve for photosynthesis. However, PTOX overexpression in plants has been unsuccessful at inducing photoprotection, and the factors that control its activity remain elusive. Here, we show that significant PTOX activity is induced in response to high light in the model species Eutrema salsugineum and Arabidopsis thaliana.

Characterising the Gene Expression, Enzymatic Activity and Subcellular Localisation of Metacaspase 5 ().

Metacaspases are a class of proteases found in plants that have gained attention in recent years due to their involvement in programmed cell death (PCD) and other essential cellular processes. Although structurally homologous to caspases found in animals, metacaspases have distinct properties and functions. There are nine metacaspase genes in the genome; these can be type I or type II, and working out the function of each member of the gene family is challenging.

Quick and efficient approach to develop genomic resources in orphan species: Application in Lavandula angustifolia.

Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies, by reducing the cost and increasing the throughput of sequencing, have opened doors to generate genomic data in a range of previously poorly studied species. In this study, we propose a method for the rapid development of a large-scale molecular resources for orphan species. We studied as an example the true lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.