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Apoptosis CED-4 is a stranger no more

Nature volume 388, pages 714–715 (1997)Cite this article

The nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans has been used with great success to identify the basic components of the machinery underlying apoptosis (programmed cell death)1. Indeed, of the three key cell death genes that have been identified in C. elegans, two – ced-3 and ced-9 – have mammalian homologues that also function in apoptosis. But the sequence of the third gene, ced-4, revealed no obvious mammalian homologue, and precious little in terms of possible mechanism of action. A flurry of activity has changed that. A paper by Zou et al., published earlier this month in Cell2, provides a homologue. And work by Chinnaiyan et al. (page 728of this issue3) and by Seshagiri and Miller in Current Biology4 lays down some choreography for the part that CED-4 protein plays in the molecular dance of death.

Over the years, genetic screens in C. elegans have led to the identification of about a dozen cell death (ced) genes that are responsible for one aspect or another of the apoptotic process. Three of these genes stand out. Two, ced-3 and ced-4, are essential for cell death. The third, ced-9, antagonizes the proapoptotic activities of ced-3 and ced-4, and thereby protects cells that should survive from any accidental activation of the death programme.

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Figure 1: Caspases are cysteine proteases that promote apoptosis in mammals and have homologues in C.elegans.

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  1. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, 11724, New York, USA

    Michael O. Hengartner

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Hengartner, M. Apoptosis CED-4 is a stranger no more. Nature 388, 714–715 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/41873

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