HSP100 protein is an important component of the heat-shock response in diverse organisms. Using specific primers based on cDNA sequence, rice hsp101 gene was PCR-amplified and sequenced. Southern analysis revealed that there appears to be a single gene per haploid genome coding for HSP101 protein in rice. Northern analysis showed that expression of hsp101 transcript is strictly heat-inducible and induction is transient in nature. In the temperature regime tested, 45 °C treatment to intact rice seedlings for 2 h showed maximal levels of hsp101 mRNA. Rice full-length hsp101 cDNA complemented yeast mutant disrupted for its own hsp104 gene by insertional mutagenesis, with efficacy that was comparable with Arabidopsis hsp101 cDNA. Electron micrographic evidence suggested that rice hsp101 cDNA in yeast is active in re-solubilizing the stress-induced protein granules in the post-stress recovery period. Rice hsp101 cDNA expression in hsp104 deficient yeast also caused recovery in tolerance against arsenite. Western analyses showed that this protein is expressed more rapidly during the stress period and retained for longer duration in the post-stress recovery period in japonica rice as compared to indica rice types. This is the first report wherein plant HSP100 protein expression is correlated to disappearance of protein granules in the yeast cells and distinct rice type-dependent protein expression patterns are reported.

The activity of RNases and nucleases in plants often increases following exposure to many types of stress, including prolonged exposure to dark or phosphate starvation. In cereals, the activity of RNases and nucleases is also regulated developmentally during late seed development. In this study, we investigated the effect that the absence of sugar or phosphate in culture medium has on the activity of RNases and nucleases expressed in maize endosperm suspension cells. Withdrawal of sugar from the culture medium resulted in a substantial increase in RNase and nuclease activities, whereas deprivation of phosphate during the same period of growth had no detectable effect on either of these activities. The increase in RNase activity was limited to the neutral RNases, demonstrating that the effect of sugar starvation is specific to one class of RNase. Elimination of asparagine from the medium resulted in a transient reduction in nuclease but not in RNase activity. These observations suggest that sugar starvation constitutes a stress to which maize endosperm responds, in part, by increasing neutral RNase and nuclease activity.

Cereal endosperm undergoes programmed cell death (PCD) during its development, a process that is controlled, in part, by ethylene. Whether other hormones influence endosperm PCD has not been investigated. Abscisic acid (ABA) plays an essential role during late seed development that enables an embryo to survive desiccation. To examine whether ABA is also involved in regulating the onset of PCD during endosperm development, we have used genetic and biochemical means to disrupt ABA biosynthesis or perception during maize kernel development. The onset and progression of cell death, as determined by viability staining and the appearance of internucleosomal DNA fragmentation, was accelerated in developing endosperm of ABA-insensitive vp1 and ABA-deficient vp9 mutants. Ethylene was synthesized in vp1 and vp9 mutant kernels at levels that were 2–4-fold higher than in wild-type kernels. Moreover, the increase and timing of ethylene production correlated with the premature onset and accelerated progression of internucleosomal fragmentation in these mutants. Treatment of developing wild-type endosperm with fluridone, an inhibitor of ABA biosynthesis, recapitulated the increase in ethylene production and accelerated execution of the PCD program that was observed in the ABA mutant kernels. These data suggest that a balance between ABA and ethylene establishes the appropriate onset and progression of programmed cell death during maize endosperm development.

The endosperm of cereals functions as a storage tissue in which the majority of starch and seed storage proteins are synthesized. During its development, cereal endosperm initiates a cell death program that eventually affects the entire tissue with the exception of the outermost cells, which differentiate into the aleurone layer and remain living in the mature seed. To date, the cell death program has been described for maize and wheat endosperm, which exhibits common and unique elements for each species. The progression of endosperm programmed cell death (PCD) in both species is accompanied by an increase in nuclease activity and the internucleosomal degradation of nuclear DNA, hallmarks of apoptosis in animals. Moreover, ethylene and abscisic acid are key to mediating PCD in cereal endosperm. The progression of the cell death program in developing maize endosperm follows a highly organized pattern whereas in wheat endosperm, PCD initiates stochastically. Although the essential characteristics of cereal endosperm PCD are now known, the molecular mechanisms responsible for its execution remain to be identified.

Although maize endosperm undergoes programmed cell death during its development, it is not known whether this developmental feature is common to cereals or whether it arose inadvertently from the selection process that resulted in the enlarged endosperm of modern maize. Examination of wheat endosperm during its development revealed that this tissue undergoes a programmed cell death that shares features with the maize program but differs in some aspects of its execution. Cell death initiated and progressed stochastically in wheat endosperm in contrast to maize where cell death initiates within the upper central endosperm and expands outward. After a peak of ethylene production during early development, wheat endosperm DNA underwent internucleosomal fragmentation that was detectable from mid to late development. The developmental onset and progression of DNA degradation was regulated by the level of ethylene production and perception. These observations suggest that programmed cell death of the endosperm and regulation of this program by ethylene is not unique to maize but that differences in the execution of the program appear to exist among cereals.