¹College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Correspondence: Prof. Zhonghe Zhai, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Tel: 86-10-62754293, Fax: 86-10-62751850, E-mail: swzb@pku.edu.cn

Received 12 February 1999; Revised 30 April 1999; Accepted 11 May 1999.

Abstract

We have developed a cell-free system that can trigger the nuclei purified from mouse liver and suspension-cultured carrot cells to undergo apoptosis as defined by the formation of apoptotic bodies and nucleosomal DNA fragments. The effects of different divalent cations and cycloheximide on DNA cleavage in this system were assessed. The fact that nuclei of plant cells can be induced to undergo apoptosis in a cell-free animal system suggests that animals and plants share a common signal transduction pathway triggering in the initiation stage of apoptosis.