Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Medical Centre Freiburg, Hermann Herder-Str. 11, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.
Microbes Infect. 2013 Jul-Aug;15(8-9):640-4. doi: 10.1016/j.micinf.2013.05.005. Epub 2013 Jun 6.
Apoptosis is a well-studied form of cell death in metazoans, where it has a clear role during the life of the (multicellular) animal. Some situations of cell death in unicellular eukaryotes (protozoa and yeast) have also been referred to as apoptosis. In recent years apoptosis has further been identified in bacteria several times. As a bacterial response to external stimuli, apoptosis could be important not only for the bacteria but also to the host. Here I will discuss why I believe that the term apoptosis should be avoided for these situations in bacteria, no matter how interesting the molecular background or how biologically important the underlying mechanism may be.
细胞凋亡是后生动物中研究得比较透彻的一种细胞死亡形式，在（多细胞）动物的生命过程中起着明确的作用。单细胞真核生物（原生动物和酵母）中的一些细胞死亡情况也被称为细胞凋亡。近年来，在细菌中也多次发现了细胞凋亡。作为细菌对外界刺激的一种反应，细胞凋亡不仅对细菌很重要，对宿主也可能很重要。在这里，我将讨论为什么我认为，无论分子背景多么有趣，潜在机制多么重要，这个术语都不应该用于细菌中的这些情况。
