Publication Date:
1997-01-24
Description:
Apoptosis, a form of cellular suicide, involves the activation of CED-3-related cysteine proteases (caspases). The regulation of caspases by apoptotic signals and the precise mechanism by which they kill the cell remain unknown. In Drosophila, different death-inducing stimuli induce the expression of the apoptotic activator reaper. Cell killing by reaper and two genetically linked apoptotic activators, hid and grim, requires caspase activity. A Drosophila caspase, named Drosophila caspase-1 (DCP-1), was identified and found to be structurally and biochemically similar to Caenorhabditis elegans CED-3. Loss of zygotic DCP-1 function in Drosophila caused larval lethality and melanotic tumors, showing that this gene is essential for normal development.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Song, Z -- McCall, K -- Steller, H -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1997 Jan 24;275(5299):536-40.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8999799" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Animals
;
*Apoptosis
;
Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
;
*Caspases
;
Cloning, Molecular
;
Cysteine Endopeptidases/chemistry/genetics/*metabolism
;
DNA Fragmentation
;
DNA Transposable Elements
;
Drosophila/embryology/*enzymology/genetics
;
Drosophila Proteins
;
Embryo, Nonmammalian/enzymology
;
Gene Deletion
;
Genes, Insect
;
HeLa Cells
;
Helminth Proteins/chemistry/metabolism
;
Humans
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Mutation
;
RNA, Messenger/genetics/metabolism
;
Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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