TARGETED EXPRESSION OF CED-3 AND ICE INDUCES PROGRAMMED CELL-DEATH INDROSOPHILA

CED-3 is a cysteine protease required for programmed cell death in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, and shares a sequence similarity wi th mammalian ICE (interleukin-1 beta converting enzyme) family proteas es. Both CED-3 and ICE family proteases can induce programmed cell dea th in mammalian cells. Structural and functional similarities between CED-3 and ICE family proteases indicate that the mechanism of cell dea th is evolutionarily conserved, suggesting the presence of a similar m echanism involving CED-3/ICE-like proteases in Drosophila. Here we det ermined whether CED-3 or ICE functions to induce programmed cell death in Drosophila. We have generated transformant lines in which ced-3 or Ice is ectopically expressed using the GAL-4-UAS system. Expression o f CED-3 and ICE can elicit cell death in Drosophila and the cell death was blocked by coexpressing the p35 gene which encodes a viral inhibi tor of CED-3/ICE proteases. Results support the idea that the mechanis m of programmed cell death controlled by CED-3/ICE is conserved among widely divergent animal species including Drosophila, and the system d escribed provides a tool to dissect cell death mechanism downstream of CED-3/ICE proteases.