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Bacterial programmed cell death: making sense of a paradox

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 12, pages 63–69 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Although the concept of programmed cell death (PCD) in bacteria has been met with scepticism, a growing body of evidence suggests that it can no longer be ignored. Several recent studies indicate that the phenotypic manifestations of apoptosis, which are processes that are associated with ordered cellular disassembly in eukaryotes, are conserved in bacteria. In this Opinion article, I propose a model for the coordinated control of potential bacterial PCD effectors and argue that the processes involved are functionally analogous to eukaryotic PCD systems.

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Figure 1: Model pathway of bacterial PCD.
Figure 2: A conservation of responses to cellular stress.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank X. Luo for lending his expertise on apoptosis, and K. Nelson for her editorial assistance in the development of this manuscript. Work conducted in the author's laboratory is supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (P01-AI83211 and R01-AI038901).

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  1. Department of Pathology & Microbiology, Kenneth W. Bayles is at the Center for Staphylococcal Research, The University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68198, USA.,

    Kenneth W. Bayles

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Bayles, K. Bacterial programmed cell death: making sense of a paradox. Nat Rev Microbiol 12, 63–69 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro3136

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