Mort cellulaire programmée, apoptose, …et cellules végétales

Programmed cell death (PCD) in plants has been the subject of controversy for a long time. There is no more doubts nowadays of the occurrence of such a phenomenon during normal plant development or during the plant responses to pathogens. There are some analogies between plant programmed cell death and animal cell's apoptosis, although plant PCD may occur through different morphological patterns. The initial molecular mechanisms leading to PCD during plant normal development and defense responses might be common but with various morphological manifestations depending upon the plant needs.