The Origin of Programmed Cell Death

摘要

Cells from multicellular organisms self-destruct when they are no longer needed or have become damaged. They do this by activating genetically controlled cell suicide machinery that leads to programmed cell death (PCD). To survive, all cells from multicellular animals depend on the constant repression of this suicide program by signals from other cells (1). It has been assumed that such an altruistic form of cell survival regulation arose with multicellularity and would have been counterselected in unicellular organisms (1). Recent findings indicate, however, that a similar process of socially advantageous regulation of cell survival also operates in single-celled eukaryotes.