A common signalosome for programmed cell death in humans and plants

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In mammals, the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis, or programmed cell death (PCD), mainly involves activation of the apoptosome-dependent caspase cascade upon binding of cytochrome c to Apaf-1 in the cytoplasm. 1 In plants, however, cytochrome c is likewise released from the mitochondria upon death stimuli, 2 , 3 but nothing is known on its cytoplasmic function or targets. Actually, the function of cytochrome c is still controversial as it is mostly immobilized (ca. 90%) in the mitochondrial cristae under homeostatic conditions – and, therefore, it is unable to have any role as redox carrier 4 – but is massively liberated into the cytoplasm and even the nucleus under PCD conditions.