Identification of Chinese cabbage sentrin as a suppressor of Bax-induced cell death in yeast

Studies into the cell death program termed apoptosis have resulted in new information regarding how cells control and execute their own demise, including insights into the mechanism by which death-preventing factors can inhibit Bax-induced caspase activation. We investigated high temperature stress-induced cell death in Brassica rapa. Using a yeast functional screening from a Brassica rapa cDNA library, the BH5-127 EST clone encoding an apoptotic suppressor peptide was identified. However, a phylogenic tree showed that BH5-127 clusters within a clade containing SUMO-1 (Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier-1). BH5-127 was confirmed similar to have function to SUMO-1 as Fas suppression. Expression of BH5-127 showed that substantial suppression of cell death survived on SD-galactose-Leu^- -Ura^- medium. The results suggest that BrSE (Brassica rapa Sentrin EST, BH5-127) is one of the important regulatory proteins in programming cell death, especially in the seedling stage of Chinese cabbage.