Programmed cell death in animals is usually associated with apoptotic morphology and requires caspase activation. Necrosis and caspase-independent cell death have been reported, but mostly in experimental conditions that lead some to question their existence it in vivo. Loss of interdigital cells in the mouse embryo, a paradigm of cell death during development [1], is known to include an apopto...

The role of mitochondria in Drosophila programmed cell death remains unclear, although certain gene products that regulate cell death seem to be evolutionarily conserved. We find that developmental programmed cell death stimuli in vivo and multiple apoptotic stimuli ex vivo induce dramatic mitochondrial fragmentation upstream of effector caspase activation, phosphatidylserine exposure, and nucl...

Brucella species are Gram-negative, facultative intracellular bacteria that cause zoonotic brucellosis. Survival and replication inside macrophages is critical for establishment of chronic Brucella infection. Virulent smooth B. abortus strain 2308 inhibits programmed macrophage cell death and replicates inside macrophages. Cattle B. abortus vaccine strain RB51 is an attenuated rough, lipopolysa...

Ubiquitylation targets proteins for proteasome-mediated degradation and plays important roles in many biological processes including apoptosis. However, non-proteolytic functions of ubiquitylation are also known. In Drosophila, the inhibitor of apoptosis protein 1 (DIAP1) is known to ubiquitylate the initiator caspase DRONC in vitro. Because DRONC protein accumulates in diap1 mutant cells that ...

Dronc is a caspase recruitment domain-containing Drosophila caspase that is expressed in a temporally and spatially restricted fashion during development. Dronc is the only fly caspase known to be regulated by the hormone ecdysone. Here we show that ectopic expression of dronc in the developing fly eye leads to increased cell death and an ablated eye phenotype that can be suppressed by halving ...

Caspase-3 is a member of the cysteine protease family and plays a critical role in the regulation of programmed cell death (apoptosis) [1]. Caspase-3 expression has been extensively studied in many cancers. The positive correlation between its expression and a favorable prognosis has been reported in several cancers, suggesting its use as a prognostic marker for cancers [2]. In oral squamous ce...

During normal development, cell elimination [1,2] occurs by programmed cell death (PCD) [3], of which apoptosis [4] is the best known morphological type. Activation of cysteine proteases termed caspases [5] is required in many instances of animal PCD [6-9], but its role outside the animal kingdom is as yet unknown. PCD occurs during developmental stages in the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideu...