title: Noncanonical cell death in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has served as a fruitful setting for cell death research for over three decades. A conserved pathway of four genes, egl-1/BH3-only, ced-9/Bcl-2, ced-4/Apaf-1, and ced-3/caspase, coordinates most developmental cell deaths in C. elegans. However, other cell death forms, programmed and pathological, have also been described in this animal. Some of these share morphological and/or molecular similarities with the canonical apoptotic pathway, while others do not. Indeed, recent studies suggest the existence of an entirely novel mode of programmed developmental cell destruction that may also be conserved beyond nematodes. Here, we review evidence for these noncanonical pathways. We propose that different cell death modalities can function as backup mechanisms for apoptosis, or as tailor-made programs that allow specific dying cells to be efficiently cleared from the animal.
authors: Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, The Rockefeller University, New York, USA.
authors: Maxime J
authors: MJ
authors: Kinet
authors: Laboratory of Developmental Genetics, The Rockefeller University, New York, USA. Electronic address: shaham@rockefeller.edu.
authors: Shai
authors: S
authors: Shaham
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D020169:Caspases / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D009336:Necrosis / Q000235:genetics*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000235:genetics; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; C089224:Ced-4 protein, C elegans; C087233:Ced-9 protein, C elegans; C112486:EGL-1 protein, C elegans; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D020169:Caspases; C089223:ced-3 protein, C elegans
keywords: Apoptosis; C. elegans; Cell death; Linker; Morphology; Necrosis