Many cases of autosomal dominant early onset familial Alzheimer's disease result from mutations in presenilin-1 (PS1). In this study, we examined the role of the PS1 homologue gene sel-12 of Caenorhabditis elegans under oxidative stress and clarified the sel-12-induced apoptosis. A genetic null allele mutant, sel-12(ar171), showed resistance to oxidative stress and prevented mitochondrial dysfunction-induced apoptosis. On the other hand, another allele mutant, sel-12(ar131), that carries a missense mutation showed a proapoptotic activity, which may be the result of a gain of function property. Also, sel-12(ar131)-induced apoptosis was ced-3-and ced-4-dependent. Dantrolene, which specifically inhibits Ca 2؉ release from endoplasmic reticulum stores, prevents sel-12(ar131)-induced apoptosis. SEL-12, which is localized in the endoplasmic reticulum, may induce apoptosis through abnormal calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum. Together, with the previous finding that human PS1 could substitute for SEL-12, these results suggest the similar involvement of PS1-inducing apoptosis under oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in the Alzheimer's Disease brain.Many cases of autosomal dominant early onset familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) 1 result from mutations in the gene encoding presenilin-1 (PS1) (1). PS1 is an integral membrane protein comprising multiple transmembrane domains that is expressed in neurons throughout the brain and primarily localized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi apparatus (2, 3). PS1 is essential for ␥-secretase cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and Notch protein (4 -7). FAD-related mutations in PS1 increase the levels of A42 in Alzheimer's disease brains (8), transfected cell lines, and transgenic animals (9, 10). It is recognized that oxidative stress and mitochondrial abnormalities may play important roles in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (11,12). Overexpression of PS1 mutations in cultured cells increases their vulnerability to oxidative stress and A toxicity (13, 14). As it is well known that oxidative stress plays the role of apoptosis (15), the oxidative stress and apoptosis may be also tightly linked in Alzheimer's disease. In fact, FAD-related mutant PS1 is also involved in apoptosis (13,16).Caenorhabditis elegans has the PS1 homologue gene sel-12, which facilitates lin-12/Notch receptor-mediated signaling, and the mutation of sel-12 produces defects in vulva and neuronal development (17,18). Levitan et al. (19) have shown that human PS1 could substitute for C. elegans sel-12 protein. In this study, we try to elucidate the possibility that sel-12 is involved in oxidative stress and apoptosis in C. elegans. In attempting to clarify the relationship between sel-12 and cell death, we used the C. elegans sel-12 and mev-1 mutants in this study. The mev-1(kn1) mutant has a defect in the cytochrome b large subunit in complex II of the mitochondrial electron transport chain that shows hypersensitivity to oxygen and paraquat (20). have rep...