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. 2007 May 1;9(2):345–359. doi: 10.1111/j.1582-4934.2005.tb00360.x

Pathways of apoptosis and importance in developement

Ciara Twomey 1, J V McCarthy 1,✉
PMCID: PMC6740094  PMID: 15963254

Abstract

The elimination of cells by programmed cell death is a fundamental even in developmental event in development where multicellular ogranisms regulate cell numbers or eliminate cells that are functional reduandant or potentially detrimental to the ogranism. The evolutionary conservation of the biochemical and genetic regulating of programmed cell death across species has allowed the genetic pathyways of programmed cell death determined in lower species, such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the fruitfly Dorsophila melangaster to act as models to delineate the genetics and regulation of cell death in mammalian cells. These studies have identified cell autonomous and non‐autonomous mechanisms that regulate of cell death and reveal that developmental cell death can either be a pre‐determined cell fate or the consequence of insufficient cell interactions that normally promote cell survival.

Keywords: apoptosis, development, evolution, genetics, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorabditis elegans, caspase, death receptror, Bcl‐2, IAP

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