title: Programmed death in a unicellular organism has species-specific fitness effects.
abstract: Programmed cell death (PCD) is an ancient phenomenon and its origin and maintenance in unicellular life is unclear. We report that programmed death provides differential fitness effects that are species specific in the model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Remarkably, PCD in this organism not only benefits others of the same species, but also has an inhibitory effect on the growth of other species. These data reveal that the fitness effects of PCD can depend upon genetic relatedness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Medicine and Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Biosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, , 7 York Road, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa.
authors.forename: Pierre M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.forename: Rajdeep
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Choudhury
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rashidi
authors.forename: Richard E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Michod
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D002696:Chlamydomonas / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D056084:Genetic Fitness; D006358:Hot Temperature; D013045:Species Specificity
keywords: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; inclusive fitness; programmed cell death