Innate immunity in fungi: Is regulated cell death involved?
María L. Gaspar, Teresa E. Pawlowska
Abstract
Innate immunity is an ancient cell-autonomous property of eukaryotes that allows them to regulate interactions with antagonistic microbes, including bacteria. While animal and plant innate immunity systems are relatively well understood Both animal and plant immune systems consist of surveillance, signal transduction, and response modules, which exhibit remarkable functional similarities and are clearly products of convergent/parallel evolutionary trajectories [3, Among others, these similarities include regulated cell death (RCD) of infected cells as an ultimate mechanism for eliminating microbial intruders. Unlike accidental cell death, RCD is governed by a set of genetically encoded procedures for targeted cell removal and, depending on specific stimuli, can proceed along several distinct pathways manifested by diverse biochemical and morphological hallmarks