Caspases: an ancient cellular sword of Damocles.
Caspases are a family of cysteine proteases homologous to the Caenorhabditis elegans programmed cell death gene product CED-3. Caspases and their distant relatives, meta- and paracaspases, have been found in phylogenetically distant nonmetazoan groups, including plants, fungi and prokaryotes. This review summarizes the current information on the mechanisms and functions of non-mammalian caspases and their relatives in apoptotic and nonapoptotic processes, and explores the possible evolutionary origin of the caspase family.
Boyce
M
M
Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Degterev
A
A
Yuan
J
J
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D020169:Caspases / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans
D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D020169:Caspases