The scientific team at the Swedish University’s Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) recently successfully isolated a completely new gene that regulates cell death in plant embryos. It is reported that this is the world’s first discovery. The team discovered the programmed death process of embryonic germ cells and discovered the first gene that regulates the death of this cell. The study was discovered in collaboration with Durham University in the UK and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. This is a very, very small advance for human basic research on plant development. However, in the long run, this may be of great significance for plant cultivation and forestry. Scientists hope that the understanding that programmed cell death can be regulated can be applied to increase yield and crop disease resistance. Procedural cell death is a natural and vital process in the life cycle of multicellular organisms. It can regulate the form of activity of the organism and remove excess or destroyed cells at a particular stage of development. It can be said that programmed cell death is a suicide process that is controlled by "death genes." These have been extensively studied in animal cells. The 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology gave scientists the discovery of key genes that regulate organ growth and programmed cell death in helminths. These genes are crucial to the function of the body. When the balance between new cell production and old cell death is destroyed, diseases such as cancer and some disorders of the nervous system are produced. In contrast to animal cells, plant cells may modulate the process of programmed cell death using completely different mechanisms. With the discovery of SLU scientists, it is now possible to start studying the differences between plants and animals in these areas.