CGC Bibliography Paper 5554
Apoptosomes: engines for caspase activation.
Adams JM,
Cory S
- Medline:
-
- Citation:
- Current Opinion in Cell Biology 14: 715-720 2002
- Type:
- REVIEW
- Genes:
- ced-3 ced-4 ced-9 egl-1
- Abstract:
- Activation of the caspases that initiate apoptosis typically requires cognate scaffold proteins, including CED-4 in Caenorhabditis elegans, Apaf-1 in mammals and Dark in Drosophila. Each scaffold protein oligomerizes procaspases into a complex called the apoptosome, but the regulation and biological roles of the scaffolds differ. Whereas CED-4 is restrained by the Bcl-2 homologue CED-9, Apaf-1 is inhibited by its WD40 repeat region, until it is activated by cytochrome c, derived from damaged mitochondria. Although Dark also has a WD40 region, its activation does not seem to involve cytochrome c. CED-4 is essential for apoptosis in the worm and Dark for many apoptotic responses in the fly, but the Apaf-1/caspase-9 system probably amplifies rather than initiates the