Apoptosis-like cell death in unicellular photosynthetic organisms — A review
Section snippets
Introduction to apoptosis as a term and discovery
Every cell has a time to live and a time to die; death could be accidental due to injury or otherwise. Cell death was observed as a part of the physiological process of multicellular organisms such as plants and animals since the mid of the 19th century [1]. However, a form of non-accidental yet, controlled cell deletion/removal observed in the year 1964 was termed programmed cell death [2], [3]. Originally discovered in 1972 by Kerr and co-workers [4], if cells are no more needed, they die by
Apoptosis in metazoans: morphological features of the process
Programmed cell death in metazoans is characterized by several morphological and biochemical changes, typically referred to as hallmarks; these being, shrinkage of the cytoplasm, nuclear condensation, membrane blebbing, externalization of phoshatidylserine, mitochondrial membrane potential breakdown with the release of Cytochrome c, formation of apoptotic bodies with their engulfment by phagocytes, release of (at least in mammalian cells) ATP and UTP, and induction of cysteine proteases and
Comparison of the process between animals and plants
It is now well-established that parts of the apoptotic process are conserved across worms, insects, vertebrates [9] and plants [16], [17], [18], [19]. PCD in plants encompasses a diverse set of mechanisms from initiation of the trigger to cell death itself [20], [21], [22], [23]. Although the differences in the details of the mechanism between plants and animals are now clear, many cellular and molecular features still remain the same. The common morphological and biochemical features are loss
PCD in non-photosynthetic unicellular organisms
The first study on the presence of PCD in a unicellular organism was reported during the in vitro differentiation of the proliferating epimastigote stage into the G0/G1 arrested trypomastigote stage of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi [37]. Subsequent reports have shown ConA-induced apoptotic death in Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense [38], [39], [40], heat shock-induced apoptosis in Leishmania amazonenis [41], a variety of stress conditions (serum deprivation, heat shock and nitric oxide exposure)
Caspases and caspase-like proteases
Current literature shows the existence of three types of caspases viz., inflammatory, initiator and executioner caspases. The first ever caspase to be discovered was ICE, an inflammatory caspase. Immediately after this discovery, the role of caspases in PCD was sought, their multiplicity and the diverse pathways in which they participate followed next; and then, came the search for caspase and caspase-like proteases in lower organisms. In 2000, Uren and his associates [100] found several
Conclusion
Although unicellular organisms are now used as experimental model systems to study PCD, it is unclear why these own a suicide programme. The unicellular organism is a cell and organism; and, therefore, death by a suicidal process is indeed ironical. The moot question is whether these programmes contribute in any way to their evolutionary fitness. For the sake of simplicity and to understand the reasons of PCD evolution in single-celled organisms, the only way of explanation is speculation and
Acknowledgement
This work was funded by the Department of Atomic Energy, India.
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