Genetic control of cellular suicide.
Genetic analysis of programmed cell death in C. elegans has led to the identification of two genes, ced-9, a cell death suppressor, and ced-3, a cell death inducer, that play critical roles in regulating programmed cell death. The ced-9 and ced-3 genes were found to encode proteins that share structural and functional similarities with the mammalian proto-oncogene product Bcl-2 and interleukin-1 beta converting enzyme (ICE), respectively. Multiple members of the Bcl-2 family and the ICE family have been identified in vertebrates. These results suggest that the mechanism of apoptosis in vertebrates may be evolved from a much simpler version of a similar pathway in primitive organisms.
Yuan
J
J
Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics*; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D020169:Caspases; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000235:genetics*; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; C087233:Ced-9 protein, C elegans; D015801:Helminth Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D020169:Caspases; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases; C089223:ced-3 protein, C elegans