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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
The study of apoptosis is synonymous with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, as many of the important molecular components in this conserved biological process have been identified through genetic studies in this model organism. Now, reporting in Nature,Barbara Conradt and coworkers show that mitochondrial fragmentation previously thought to be an exclusive characteristic of apoptotic mammalian cells is also a feature of apoptosis in C. elegans. And by mutating the tractable genome of this useful organism, the researchers explain how mitochondrial break-up might contribute to the apoptotic process.
Although mitochondria had not previously been shown to have a crucial role in apoptosis in nematodes, it seemed unlikely that this organelle such an enthusiastic participant in apoptosis in mammals would be a mere innocent bystander in the C. elegans cell-death programme. So Conradt and her team examined liveC. elegans embryos using time-lapse confocal microscopy and noted the
morphology of mitochondria in cells that were undergoing programmed cell death. They observed that, in non-apoptotic cells, mitochondria formed a cohesive network of tubules. However, soon after the induction of apoptosis, the network started to break up until only mitochondrial fragments remained in the cell.
But is the fragmentation of mitochondria a...