L'apoptose dérive-t-elle de la mort nucléaire programmée mise en oeuvre par les protistes ?

Abstract

During the sexual phase of their life cycle, some protists eliminate one or several of their nuclei. During embryonic and adult life many metazoans eliminate some of their cells, a process called programmed cell death or apoptosis. The two forms of programmed death have several properties in common. The authors propose an evolutionary interpretation of these similarities. They assume that the conversion of unicellular animals into multicellular animals was accompanied by a conversion of programmed death of nuclei into programmed death of cells. The various metazoan groups may have conserved a trace of this remote event. Similar mechanisms might trigger and bring about apoptosis in different groups. If this were the case, the study of apoptosis would be facilitated. It would be possible to transpose to mammals and man the results provided by the genetic dissection of apoptosis in species which lend themselves to this kind of study.