Both the caspase CSP-1 and a caspase-independent pathway promote programmed cell death in parallel to the canonical pathway for apoptosis in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Abstract excerpt

Caspases are cysteine proteases that can drive apoptosis in metazoans and have critical functions in the elimination of cells during development, the maintenance of tissue homeostasis, and responses to cellular damage. Although a growing body of research suggests that programmed cell death can occur in the absence of caspases, mammalian studies of caspase-independent apoptosis are confounded by the existence of...

Topics

• Animals
• Apoptosis
• Caenorhabditis elegans
• Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
• Calcium-Binding Proteins
• Caspases
• Embryonic Development
• Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
• Mutation
• Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2
• Signal Transduction