Bcl-2 family members localize to tobacco chloroplasts and inhibit programmed cell death induced by chloroplast-targeted herbicides.

In mammalian cells, apoptosis is often mediated via organelles. While apoptotic-like cell death occurs in plants, the mechanistic details are unresolved. Transgenic tobacco plants have been generated that harbour selected animal anti-apoptotic genes. Subcellular fractionation followed by western blot analysis indicated that chloroplasts serve as a location for these animal anti-apoptotic proteins in addition to the established mitochondrial location. To explore the functional significance of this observation, tobacco plants were treated with three chloroplast-directed herbicides. Wild-type plants died and exhibited features associated with apoptosis. Transgenic plants survived and did not show any apoptotic-like characteristics. Moreover, the herbicide-induced apoptotic-like cell death was light requiring. It was concluded that chloroplasts may be involved in mediating certain types of plant programmed cell death.