Klemenčič Marina, Dolinar Marko
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot 113, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Curr Genet. 2016 Nov;62(4):669-675. doi: 10.1007/s00294-016-0582-6. Epub 2016 Mar 11.
Programmed cell death in multicellular organisms is a coordinated and precisely regulated process. On the other hand, in bacteria we have little clue about the network of interacting molecules that result in the death of a single cell within a population or the death of almost complete population, such as often observed in cyanobacterial blooms. With the recent discovery that orthocaspase MaOC1 of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa is an active proteolytic enzyme, we have gained a possible hint about at least one step in the process, but the picture is far from complete. Interestingly, the genomic context of MaOC1 revealed the presence of multiple copies of genes that belong to toxin-antitoxin modules. It has been speculated that these also play a role in bacterial programmed cell death. The discovery of two components linked to cell death within the same genomic region could open new ways to deciphering the underlying mechanisms of cyanobacterial cell death.
多细胞生物中的程序性细胞死亡是一个协调且精确调控的过程。另一方面，对于细菌，我们对导致群体中单个细胞死亡或几乎整个群体死亡（如在蓝藻水华中经常观察到的）的相互作用分子网络知之甚少。随着最近发现铜绿微囊藻的原半胱天冬酶MaOC1是一种活性蛋白水解酶，我们对该过程至少一个步骤有了可能的线索，但情况远未完整。有趣的是，MaOC1的基因组背景显示存在属于毒素-抗毒素模块的多个基因拷贝。据推测，这些基因在细菌程序性细胞死亡中也起作用。在同一基因组区域内发现与细胞死亡相关的两个组分可能为破译蓝藻细胞死亡的潜在机制开辟新途径。
