DOES APOPTOSIS DERIVE FROM PROGRAMMED DEA TH OF NUCLEI OCCURRING IN PROTISTS

During the sexual phase of their life cycle, some protists eliminate o ne or several of their nuclei. During embryonic and adult life many me tazoans eliminate some of their cells, a process called programmed cel l death or apoptosis. The two forms of programmed death have several p roperties in common. The authors propose an evolutionary interpretatio n of these similarities. They assume that the conversion of unicellula r animals into multicellular animals was accompanied by a conversion o f programmed death of nuclei into programmed death of cells. The vario us metazoan groups may have conserved a trace of this remote event. Si milar mechanisms might trigger and bring about apoptosis in different groups. If this were the case, the study of apoptosis would be facilit ated. 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.