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Cell lineage and cell death: Caenorhabditis elegans and cancer research

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 11, pages 50–58 (2011)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 01 March 2011

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Key Points

  • The invariant nature of the development of cell lineages in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans has made it a useful model for understanding the mechanisms of cell lineage control and cell death.

  • Many of the genes that regulate cell death and lineage development have homologues in mammals.

  • Mapping cell lineage development in the nematode has been particularly informative for understanding the regulation of haematopoiesis in mammals, with many of the genes that regulate cell lineage being deregulated in leukaemia and lymphoma.

  • Further understanding of the regulation of cell fate in C. elegans and mammals should identify new targets for anticancer drug development.

Abstract

Cancer is a complex disease in which cells have circumvented normal restraints on tissue growth and have acquired complex abnormalities in their genomes, posing a considerable challenge to identifying the pathways and mechanisms that drive fundamental aspects of the malignant phenotype. Genetic analyses of the normal development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans have revealed evolutionarily conserved mechanisms through which individual cells establish their fates, and how they make and execute the decision to survive or undergo programmed cell death. The pathways identified through these studies have mammalian counterparts that are co-opted by malignant cells. Effective cancer drugs now target some of these pathways, and more are likely to be discovered.

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Figure 1: The role of programmed cell death in cell lineage.
Figure 2: The programmed cell death pathway of C. elegans is evolutionarily conserved.
Figure 3: Cell death is specified by transcription factors in C. elegans, and their human homologues are oncogenes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Matt Porteus, Jim Amatruda, John Abrams and Bob Horvitz for their contributions to the manuscript. S.C. would also like to particularly thank Matt and Jim for their friendship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Biology, Division of Pediatric Haematology-Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, 75390-9148, Texas, USA

    Malia B. Potts & Scott Cameron

  2. Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Oncology Translational Medicine, 220 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, 02139, Massachusetts, USA

    Scott Cameron

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  1. Malia B. Potts
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Correspondence to Scott Cameron.

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Potts, M., Cameron, S. Cell lineage and cell death: Caenorhabditis elegans and cancer research. Nat Rev Cancer 11, 50–58 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc2984

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