GENES THAT REGULATE APOPTOSIS IN THE MOUSE THYMUS

Elimination of self-reactive T lymphocytes occurs during T-cell develo pment in the thymus by a process known as negative selection. The mech anism that drives negative selection is apoptosis. To identify genes t hat regulate apoptosis in the mouse thymus, a library of negatively se lected T cells was constructed and, by subtractive screening, several differentially regulated genes were isolated. Two transcripts that are repressed during cell death were identified, in addition to two induc ed transcripts. Further experiments demonstrated that cell death in th ymocytes can occur via several induction pathways and each pathway app ears to be regulated by a unique cascade of genes. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss , Inc.