Seipp Stefanie, Wittig Karola, Stiening Beate, Böttger Angelika, Leitz Thomas
Developmental Biology of Animals, Department of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Int J Dev Biol. 2006;50(1):63-70. doi: 10.1387/ijdb.052012ss.
Apoptotic cell death plays an important role in many developmental pathways in multicellular animals. Here, we show that metamorphosis in the basal invertebrate Hydractinia echinata (Cnidaria) depends on the activity of caspases, the central enzymes in apoptosis. Caspases are activated during metamorphosis and this activity can be measured with caspase-3 specific fluorogenic substrates. In affinity labelling experiments 23/25 kDa bands were obtained, which represented active caspase. Specific inhibition of caspase activity with caspase-3 inhibitors abolished metamorphosis completely, reversibly and in a dose-dependent manner. This suggests that caspase activity is indispensable for metamorphosis in Hydractinia echinata.
凋亡性细胞死亡在多细胞动物的许多发育途径中起着重要作用。在此，我们表明，基础无脊椎动物海葵（刺胞动物门）的变态发育依赖于胱天蛋白酶的活性，胱天蛋白酶是凋亡过程中的核心酶。在变态发育过程中胱天蛋白酶被激活，这种活性可以用半胱天冬酶-3特异性荧光底物来测量。在亲和标记实验中获得了23/25 kDa条带，代表活性胱天蛋白酶。用半胱天冬酶-3抑制剂特异性抑制胱天蛋白酶活性可完全、可逆且剂量依赖性地消除变态发育。这表明胱天蛋白酶活性对于海葵的变态发育是不可或缺的。
