Programmed cell death mediated by ced-3 and ced-4 protects Caenorhabditis elegans from Salmonella typhimurium-mediated killing
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115; and Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114
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Contributed by Frederick M. Ausubel
Abstract
Programmed cell death (PCD) in mammals has been implicated in several disease states including cancer, autoimmune disease, and neurodegenerative disease. In Caenorhabditis elegans, PCD is a normal component of development. We find that Salmonella typhimurium colonization of the C. elegans intestine leads to an increased level of cell death in the worm gonad. S. typhimurium-mediated germ-line cell death is not observed in C. elegans ced-3 and ced-4 mutants in which developmentally regulated cell death is blocked, and ced-3 and ced-4 mutants are hypersensitive to S. typhimurium-mediated killing. These results suggest that PCD may be involved in the C. elegans defense response to pathogen attack.
Footnotes
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↵ * To whom reprint requests should be addressed at: Wellman 10, Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114. E-mail: ausubel{at}frodo.mgh.harvard.edu.
- Abbreviations:
- PCD,
- programmed cell death;
- TD50,
- time to death for 50% of worms
- Copyright © 2001, The National Academy of Sciences
