Caspases in developmental cell death

Caspases are a family of evolutionarily conserved cysteine proteases that constitute the effector arm of the apoptotic machinery. Studies in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and mouse point to evolutionarily conserved caspase function in developmentally programmed cell death in metaz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIUBMB life Vol. 48; no. 2; p. 143
Main Authors Shearwin-Whyatt, L M, Kumar, S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.08.1999
Subjects
Animals
Apoptosis - genetics
Apoptosis - physiology
Caenorhabditis elegans - cytology
Caenorhabditis elegans - enzymology
Caenorhabditis elegans - genetics
Caspases - genetics
Caspases - physiology
Drosophila melanogaster - cytology
Drosophila melanogaster - enzymology
Drosophila melanogaster - genetics
Genes, Helminth
Genes, Insect
Mice
Mutation
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Summary:Caspases are a family of evolutionarily conserved cysteine proteases that constitute the effector arm of the apoptotic machinery. Studies in Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and mouse point to evolutionarily conserved caspase function in developmentally programmed cell death in metazoans. Whereas in the nematode all developmental cell death is mediated by a single caspase, in Drosophila and the mouse some caspases appear to regulate cell death in a spatio-temporally restricted manner. This article reviews what we currently know about the roles of various caspases in the execution of developmentally programmed cell death and what may be expected from future research in this field.
ISSN:1521-6543
1521-6551
DOI:10.1080/713803494