FIND ARTICLE

THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF CELL DEATH

Cell death is a genetically regulated process occurring commonly in nature. For decades cell death was considered to be typical only for multicellular organisms and, consequently, relatively young in evolutionary terms. However, genetically regulated cell death has recently been documented in many unicellular organisms, both eukaryotic and prokaryotic. These data suggest that cell death might be an old process accompanying life since its beginning. In this paper, examples of cell death processes in different organisms are compared.

BREFELDIN A – AN INSIGHT INTO THE FUNCTIONING OF THE MEMBRANE SYSTEM OF PLANT CELLS

The functioning of eukaryotic cells is strictly dependent on the proper vesicular traffic within the cell’s membrane system. Brefeldin A – a fungal toxin, disturbs this traffic, enabling an experimen- tal insight into the organisation and co-operation of various elements of the system. Recently, BFA target proteins and sites of action have been identified. In this paper, we analyse the mechanism of BFA functioning and indicate those particular properties of the membrane system of plant cells that determine some of the reactions to BFA that are specific to plants.

The Editorial Board
Andrzej Łukaszyk - przewodniczący, Zofia Bielańska-Osuchowska, Szczepan Biliński, Mieczysław Chorąży, Aleksander Koj, Włodzimierz Korochoda, Leszek Kuźnicki, Aleksandra Stojałowska, Lech Wojtczak

Editorial address:
Katedra i Zakład Histologii i Embriologii Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Poznaniu, ul. Święcickiego 6, 60-781 Poznań, tel. +48 61 8546453, fax. +48 61 8546440, email: mnowicki@ump.edu.pl

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