Genetic control of programmed cell death in the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite germline

Author:

Gumienny T.L.1,Lambie E.1,Hartwieg E.1,Horvitz H.R.1,Hengartner M.O.1

Affiliation:

1. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11743, USA and Program in Genetics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.

Abstract

Development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is highly reproducible and the fate of every somatic cell has been reported. We describe here a previously uncharacterized cell fate in C. elegans: we show that germ cells, which in hermaphrodites can differentiate into sperm and oocytes, also undergo apoptotic cell death. In adult hermaphrodites, over 300 germ cells die, using the same apoptotic execution machinery (ced-3, ced-4 and ced-9) as the previously described 131 somatic cell deaths. However, this machinery is activated by a distinct pathway, as loss of egl-1 function, which inhibits somatic cell death, does not affect germ cell apoptosis. Germ cell death requires ras/MAPK pathway activation and is used to maintain germline homeostasis. We suggest that apoptosis eliminates excess germ cells that acted as nurse cells to provide cytoplasmic components to maturing oocytes.

Publisher

The Company of Biologists

Subject

Developmental Biology,Molecular Biology

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