WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, NATIONAL HUMAN GENOME RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Apoptosis isn’t the only way to kill a cell, according to new research published today (February 23) in Science, in which researchers identified a gene underlying a new cell death pathway.
Cell death is an important part of life. It is critical for shaping developing organs and eliminating infected or dying cells, among other functions. The most well studied mechanism of cell death is apoptosis, which can be found in widespread organisms and tissue systems. But mice have been known to survive without key apoptosis genes, and certain cells of Caenorhabditis elegans worms undergo a death process that doesn’t require the caspases and other known apoptosis genes, suggesting some other cell death process is at work.
Taking a closer look at the linker cells of ...
