Tudor staphylococcal nuclease is an evolutionarily conserved component of the programmed cell death degradome

Substrates of plant metacaspases, cystein proteases involved in plant programmed cell death (PCD), have been so far unknown. Metacaspase II is now shown to cleave the splicing regulator Tudor staphylococcal nuclease (TSN) during developmental and stress-induced PCD, an activity shared with caspase-3 during apoptosis in animals.