Apoptosis Evolution: Cellular Self-destruction Has Been Around Almost As Long As Cells Have

It seems counter-intuitive that in order to survive best as a species, not everything can live forever, but some cells in our bodies are fated to die, and a Mission Impossible-style auto-destruct program insures they do. This elaborate cell death program, known as apoptosis, got a little more insight with a study on the evolution of caspase-8, a key cell death initiator molecule that was first identified in humans. By performing the most extensive evolutionary analysis of the Casp8 protein to date,  Sakamaki et. al., write in Molecular Biology and Evolution read more

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