Lesion mimic mutants: A classical, yet still fundamental approach to study programmed cell death
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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Use of LysoTracker to Detect Programmed Cell Death in Embryos and Differentiating Embryonic Stem Cells
Published on: October 11, 2012
Wolfgang Moeder1, Keiko Yoshioka
1Department of Cell and Systems Biology; and Center for the Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function (CAGEF); University of Toronto; Toronto, Ontario Canada.
Abstract:
Over the last decade a substantial number of lesion mimic mutants (LMM) have been isolated and a growing number of the genes have been cloned. It is now becoming clear that these mutants are valuable tools to dissect various aspects of programmed cell death (PCD) and pathogen resistance pathways in plants. Together with other forward genetics approaches LMMs shed light on the PCD machinery in plant cells and revealed important roles for sphingolipids, Ca(2+) and chloroplast-derived porphyrin-metabolites during cell death development.
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