To death or not, is controlled by the processes of PCD (programmed cell death) in animals and plants. PCD plays important roles in growth and development, as well as biotic or abiotic stresses. The lesion mimic mutation in plants, which leads to spontaneous formation of cell death in the absence of infection by exogenous pathogens, induces the expression of resistance-related genes and increases plant defense against insect pests and diseases. Understanding of the mechanism of plant PCD provides the molecular basis for developing new resistance materials in crop breeding. Recently, research groups from the State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection of CAAS have discovered a Dynamin related protein (DRP) which plays a negative role in the rice PCD, and they published their findings on the open accessed journal PLoS Pathogens.