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Staying alive: apoptosome feedback inhibition

Studies in Drosophila melanogaster reveal a mechanism for regulating caspases, the key executioners of the apoptotic cell-death program. An initiator caspase and its activating partner promote degradation of each other, thereby limiting the levels of the active protease complex. This negative-feedback inhibition helps to explain how cells avoid unwanted caspase activation and apoptosis.

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Figure 1: Model for the regulation of caspases and cell death in Drosophila.

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Steller, H. Staying alive: apoptosome feedback inhibition. Nat Cell Biol 10, 1387–1388 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1208-1387

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