Control Of Apoptosis By Asymmetric Cell Division

Asymmetric cell division and apoptosis (programmed cell death) are two fundamental processes important for the development and function of
multi-cellular organisms. Asymmetric cell division creates daughter cells of different fates, and this is critical for the generation of cellular
diversity.


Apoptosis eliminates superfluous cells from the organism, and this is critical for cellular homeostasis. In this week's PLoS Biology
Julia Hatzold and Barbara Conradt find that the processes of asymmetric cell division and apoptosis can be functionally linked. Specifically, they
show that asymmetric cell division in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is mediated by a pathway involving three genes, dnj-11 MIDA1, ces-2 HLF and
ces-1 Snail, that directly control the enzymatic machinery responsible for apoptosis. Interestingly, the role of this pathway in asymmetric cell
division and the control of apoptosis might be evolutionarily conserved.


Furthermore, it might have an unexpected role in stem cell biology: the
process of asymmetric cell division plays an essential role in the ability of stem cells to self renew and the mammalian counterparts of two
components of the dnj-11 MIDA1, ces-2 HLF, ces-1 Snail pathway have recently been implicated in stem cell function. For this reason, they speculate
that a dnj-11 MIDA1, ces-2 HLF, ces-1 Snail-like pathway might function in stem cells to coordinate self-renewal and apoptosis and, hence, the number
of stem cells.


Control of apoptosis by asymmetric cell division
Hatzold J, Conradt B (2008)

PLoS Biol 6(4): e84. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060084

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