The Caenorhabditis elegans pvl-5 gene protects hypodermal cells from ced-3-dependent, ced-4-independent cell death

Genetics
Pradeep Joshi, David M Eisenmann

Abstract

Programmed cell death (PCD) is regulated by multiple evolutionarily conserved mechanisms to ensure the survival of the cell. Here we describe pvl-5, a gene that likely regulates PCD in Caenorhabditis elegans. In wild-type hermaphrodites at the L2 stage there are 11 Pn.p hypodermal cells in the ventral midline arrayed along the anterior-posterior axis and 6 of these cells become the vulval precursor cells. In pvl-5(ga87) animals there are fewer Pn.p cells (average of 7.0) present at this time. Lineage analysis reveals that the missing Pn.p cells die around the time of the L1 molt in a manner that often resembles the programmed cell deaths that occur normally in C. elegans development. This Pn.p cell death is suppressed by mutations in the caspase gene ced-3 and in the bcl-2 homolog ced-9, suggesting that the Pn.p cells are dying by PCD in pvl-5 mutants. Surprisingly, the Pn.p cell death is not suppressed by loss of ced-4 function. ced-4 (Apaf-1) is required for all previously known apoptotic cell deaths in C. elegans. This suggests that loss of pvl-5 function leads to the activation of a ced-3-dependent, ced-4-independent form of PCD and that pvl-5 may normally function to protect cells from inappropriate activation of the apopt...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 26, 2008·Cell Death and Differentiation·E S BlumS Shaham
Jun 22, 2006·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·J B WeidhaasS V Nallur
Mar 30, 2013·Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews. Developmental Biology·Andrew D Chisholm, Suhong Xu
Sep 29, 2006·Developmental Biology·Pliny A Smith, Susan E Mango
Jul 30, 2016·Cell Death and Differentiation·Jennifer A MalinShai Shaham

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