Richardson Helena, Kumar Sharad
Trescowthick Research Laboratories, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Locked Bag 1, A'Beckett St., Melbourne, Victoria, 8006, Australia.
J Immunol Methods. 2002 Jul 1;265(1-2):21-38. doi: 10.1016/s0022-1759(02)00068-6.
Programmed cell death (PCD) is essential for the removal of unwanted cells and is critical for both restricting cell numbers and for tissue patterning during development. Components of the cell death machinery are remarkably conserved through evolution, from worms to mammals. Central to the PCD process is the family of cysteine proteases, known as caspases, which are activated by death-inducing signals. Comparisons between C. elegans and mammalian PCD have shown that there is additional complexity in the regulation of PCD in mammals. The fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, is proving an ideal genetically tractable model organism, of intermediary complexity between C. elegans and mammals, in which to study the intricacies of PCD. Here, we review the literature on PCD during Drosophila development, highlighting the methods used in these studies.
程序性细胞死亡（PCD）对于清除不需要的细胞至关重要，并且对于在发育过程中限制细胞数量和组织模式形成都至关重要。从蠕虫到哺乳动物，细胞死亡机制的组成部分在进化过程中显著保守。PCD过程的核心是半胱氨酸蛋白酶家族，即胱天蛋白酶，它们由死亡诱导信号激活。秀丽隐杆线虫和哺乳动物PCD之间的比较表明，哺乳动物PCD的调控存在额外的复杂性。果蝇，即黑腹果蝇，正被证明是一种理想的遗传易处理模型生物，其复杂性介于秀丽隐杆线虫和哺乳动物之间，可用于研究PCD的复杂性。在这里，我们回顾了关于果蝇发育过程中PCD的文献，突出了这些研究中使用的方法。
