Diversity in the intrinsic apoptosis pathway of nematodes

Neil D Young; Tiffany J Harris; Marco Evangelista; Sharon Tran; Merridee A Wouters; Tatiana P Soares da Costa; Nadia J Kershaw; Robin B Gasser; Brian J Smith; Erinna F Lee; W Douglas Fairlie

Journal article

Diversity in the intrinsic apoptosis pathway of nematodes

Neil D Young, Tiffany J Harris, Marco Evangelista, Sharon Tran, Merridee A Wouters, Tatiana P Soares da Costa, Nadia J Kershaw, Robin B Gasser, Brian J Smith, Erinna F Lee, W Douglas Fairlie

Communications Biology | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2020

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01208-5

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Abstract

Early studies of the free-living nematode C. elegans informed us how BCL-2-regulated apoptosis in humans is regulated. However, subsequent studies showed C. elegans apoptosis has several unique features compared with human apoptosis. To date, there has been no detailed analysis of apoptosis regulators in nematodes other than C. elegans. Here, we discovered BCL-2 orthologues in 89 free-living and parasitic nematode taxa representing four evolutionary clades (I, III, IV and V). Unlike in C. elegans, 15 species possess multiple (two to five) BCL-2-like proteins, and some do not have any recognisable BCL-2 sequences. Functional studies provided no evidence that BAX/BAK proteins have evolved in n..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Nadia Kershaw Author Medical Biology (W.E.H.I.)

Robin Gasser Author Veterinary Biosciences

Neil Young Author Veterinary Biosciences

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia

Funding Acknowledgements

Research funding from the Australian Research Council (LP180101334 to N.D.Y., LP180101085 to R.B.G., DE190100806 to T.P.S.d.C. and FT150100212 to E.F.L) is gratefully acknowledged. T.P.S.C. also acknowledges support from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (GNT1091976). We also thank the La Trobe University Comprehensive Proteomics Platform for providing infrastructure support.