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Nuclear DNA fragmentation during cell death of short-lived ray tracheids in the conifer Pinus densiflora

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Abstract

One key event in the programmed cell death is nuclear DNA fragmentation. We investigated the timing of nuclear DNA fragmentation during the cell death of short-lived ray tracheids in Pinus densiflora using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay. Fluorescence due to TUNEL was detected only in deformed nuclei that lacked obvious chromatin in ray tracheids that were adjacent to ray tracheids that no longer contained nuclei. Our observations revealed that nuclear DNA fragmentation occurred only at the final stage of cell death in ray tracheids in situ.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the staff of the Field Nursery of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology for providing plant materials. This work was supported, in part, by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant numbers 199327, 2200104, 20120009 and 21380107).

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Correspondence to Ryo Funada.

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Nakaba, S., Kubo, T. & Funada, R. Nuclear DNA fragmentation during cell death of short-lived ray tracheids in the conifer Pinus densiflora . J Plant Res 124, 379–384 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-010-0384-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-010-0384-8

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