Programmed cell death features in apple suspension cells under low oxygen culture

INTRODUCTION A number of abiotic stresses have been shown to induce programmed cell death (PCD) responses in plant cells. High temperatures (e.g. 55 篊) induce nuclear condensation and DNA fragmentation in cultured carrot, cucumber and Arabidopsis cells (McCabe et al., 1997; McCabe and Leaver, 2000), and also mitochondrial cytochrome c release in cucumber cotyledons (Balk et al., 1999). The PCD pathway also appears to be activated by ozone. Ozone induces an oxidative burst with acc…