Repurposing the Killing Machine: Non-canonical Roles of the Cell Death Apparatus in Caenorhabditis elegans Neurons

Abstract

Here we highlight the increasingly divergent functions of the Caenorhabditis elegans cell elimination genes in the nervous system, beyond their well-documented roles in cell dismantling and removal. We describe relevant background on the C. elegans nervous system together with the apoptotic cell death and engulfment pathways, highlighting pioneering work in C. elegans. We discuss in detail the unexpected, atypical roles of cell elimination genes in various aspects of neuronal development, response and function. This includes the regulation of cell division, pruning, axon regeneration, and behavioral outputs. We share our outlook on expanding our thinking as to what cell elimination genes can do and noting their versatility. We speculate on the existence of novel genes downstream and upstream of the canonical cell death pathways relevant to neuronal biology. We also propose future directions emphasizing the exploration of the roles of cell death genes in pruning and guidance during embryonic development.

In silico Approach for the Identification of Mirror Repeats within ced-3 Gene of Caenorhabditis elegans

“…Programmed cell death is an important process for normal growth and development of C. elegans. It is genetically controlled pathways, regulated by various genes such as egl-1, ced-4, ced-9 and ced-3 of C. elegans (35,36) . The ced-3 belongs to cysteine protease family called caspase (cysteine aspartate-specific protease) which is chief caspase responsible for cell death in C. elegans.…”

Keeping Cell Death Alive: An Introduction into the French Cell Death Research Network

“…The recent understanding that apoptotic factors have non-canonical roles in various cellular processes [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] raised considerable interest in the international scientific community and researchers of the FCDRN. Non-canonical functions of apoptotic proteins, such as cIAPs, Bcl2 family members and caspases have been shown to contribute to cellular differentiation, morphogenesis or the cross-talks between apoptosis and autophagy pathways.…”