Apoptosis is considered a crucial part of the host defense system in oysters according to previous reports; however, the exact process by which this occurs remains unclear. Besides, mitochondrial apoptosis is the primary method of apoptosis in vertebrate cells, but has been poorly studied in invertebrates and is quite controversial. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanism of mito...

Resistance (R) protein recognizes molecular signature of pathogen infection and activates downstream hypersensitive response signalling in plants. R protein works as a molecular switch for pathogen defence signalling and represent one of the largest plant gene family. Hence, understanding molecular structure and function of R proteins has been of paramount importance for plant biologists. The p...

Haplotypes of candidate genes namely: apoptotic protease activating factor 1 (APAF1 p.Q579X or HH1), glycinamide ribonucleotide formyltransferase (GART HH4), structural maintenance chromosomes 2 (SMC2 HH3), and haplotype cholesterol deficiency (HCD) associated with recessive fertility defects (loss fertility) were investigated in imported Canadian Holstein cows reared at “Medeu Commerce” LLP br...

Akademisk avhandling för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen vid Tekniska fakulteten vid Lunds universitet. Avhandlingen kommer att offentligen försvaras på Astronomiska Institutionen, Sölvegatan 27, Lund, Lundmarksalen, fredagen den 4 juni 2004 kl 13.15. This thesis is based upon the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numeral (I-IV). (2002) " Mantle cell lymp...

Apaf-1(-/-) or caspase-3(-/-) cells treated with a variety of apoptosis inducers manifest apoptosis-associated alterations including the translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) from mitochondria to nuclei, large scale DNA fragmentation, and initial chromatin condensation (stage I). However, when compared with normal control cells, Apaf-1(-/-) or caspase-3(-/-) cells fail to exhibit oli...

Elimination of superfluous or mutated somatic cells is provided by various mechanisms including apoptosis. Deregulation of apoptotic signaling pathways may contribute to oncogenesis. Aspartate specific cysteine proteases, termed caspases are the key effector molecules in apoptosis. The aim of this review is to summarize the various defects in caspase-dependent cell death machinery identified in...

In this report, we describe the cloning and characterization of Boo, a novel anti-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family. The expression of Boo was highly restricted to the ovary and epididymis implicating it in the control of ovarian atresia and sperm maturation. Boo contains the conserved BH1 and BH2 domains, but lacks the BH3 motif. Like Bcl-2, Boo possesses a hydrophobic C-terminus and locali...

Apaf-1 is a mammalian homolog of CED-4 that regulates cell death by participating in a ternary complex with cytochrome c, and procaspase-9. In the case of CED-4, two splice variants exist. The smaller (CED-4S) is proapoptotic while the larger (CED-4L) contains a short in-frame insert and is anti-apoptotic. We cloned a murine variant of apaf-1, termed apaf-1L, which contains an eleven amino acid...

Loss of expression of the apoptosis protease activator protein-1 (APAF-1) in human melanoma is thought to promote resistance to programmed cell death by preventing caspase-9 activation. However, the role of the APAF-1-dependent pathway in apoptosis activated by cellular stress and/or DNA damage has been recently questioned. We investigated APAF-1 expression in a large panel of human melanomas a...

Cytokines promote survival of mast cells by inhibiting apoptotic pathways regulated by the Bcl-2 protein family. We previously showed that lymphocyte apoptosis can proceed via a Bcl-2-inhibitable pathway independent of the canonical initiator caspase, caspase-9, and its adaptor, Apaf-1. Here we report that mast cells lacking caspase-9 or Apaf-1 are refractory to apoptosis after cytotoxic insult...