title: Programmed cell death and clearance of cell corpses in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: Programmed cell death is critical to the development of diverse animal species from C. elegans to humans. In C. elegans, the cell death program has three genetically distinguishable phases. During the cell suicide phase, the core cell death machinery is activated through a protein interaction cascade. This activates the caspase CED-3, which promotes numerous pro-apoptotic activities including DNA degradation and exposure of the phosphatidylserine "eat me" signal on the cell corpse surface. Specification of the cell death fate involves transcriptional activation of the cell death initiator EGL-1 or the caspase CED-3 by coordinated actions of specific transcription factors in distinct cell types. In the cell corpse clearance stage, recognition of cell corpses by phagocytes triggers several signaling pathways to induce phagocytosis of apoptotic cell corpses. Cell corpse-enclosing phagosomes ultimately fuse with lysosomes for digestion of phagosomal contents. This article summarizes our current knowledge about programmed cell death and clearance of cell corpses in C. elegans.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Biological Sciences, No. 7 Science Park Road, Zhongguancun Life Science Park, Beijing, 102206, China. wangxiaochen@nibs.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaochen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 West Beichen Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China. clyang@genetics.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Chonglin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000378:metabolism*; D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism*; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D010587:Phagocytosis / Q000502:physiology*; D010588:Phagosomes / Q000378:metabolism; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D029742:Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; C112486:EGL-1 protein, C elegans; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D020169:Caspases; C089223:ced-3 protein, C elegans
keywords: Apoptotic cell; C. elegans; Cell corpse clearance; Programmed cell death