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      Bacterial Programmed Cell Death and Multicellular Behavior in Bacteria

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          Abstract

          Traditionally, programmed cell death (PCD) is associated with eukaryotic multicellular organisms. However, recently, PCD systems have also been observed in bacteria. Here we review recent research on two kinds of genetic programs that promote bacterial cell death. The first is mediated by mazEF, a toxin–antitoxin module found in the chromosomes of many kinds of bacteria, and mainly studied in Escherichia coli. The second program is found in Bacillus subtilis, in which the skf and sdp operons mediate the death of a subpopulation of sporulating bacterial cells. We relate these two bacterial PCD systems to the ways in which bacterial populations resemble multicellular organisms.

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          Most cited references81

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          Quorum sensing: cell-to-cell communication in bacteria.

          Bacteria communicate with one another using chemical signal molecules. As in higher organisms, the information supplied by these molecules is critical for synchronizing the activities of large groups of cells. In bacteria, chemical communication involves producing, releasing, detecting, and responding to small hormone-like molecules termed autoinducers . This process, termed quorum sensing, allows bacteria to monitor the environment for other bacteria and to alter behavior on a population-wide scale in response to changes in the number and/or species present in a community. Most quorum-sensing-controlled processes are unproductive when undertaken by an individual bacterium acting alone but become beneficial when carried out simultaneously by a large number of cells. Thus, quorum sensing confuses the distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes because it enables bacteria to act as multicellular organisms. This review focuses on the architectures of bacterial chemical communication networks; how chemical information is integrated, processed, and transduced to control gene expression; how intra- and interspecies cell-cell communication is accomplished; and the intriguing possibility of prokaryote-eukaryote cross-communication.
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            Cell death: critical control points.

            Programmed cell death is a distinct genetic and biochemical pathway essential to metazoans. An intact death pathway is required for successful embryonic development and the maintenance of normal tissue homeostasis. Apoptosis has proven to be tightly interwoven with other essential cell pathways. The identification of critical control points in the cell death pathway has yielded fundamental insights for basic biology, as well as provided rational targets for new therapeutics.
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              Autophagy in cell death: an innocent convict?

              The visualization of autophagosomes in dying cells has led to the belief that autophagy is a nonapoptotic form of programmed cell death. This concept has now been evaluated using cells and organisms deficient in autophagy genes. Most evidence indicates that, at least in cells with intact apoptotic machinery, autophagy is primarily a pro-survival rather than a pro-death mechanism. This review summarizes the evidence linking autophagy to cell survival and cell death, the complex interplay between autophagy and apoptosis pathways, and the role of autophagy-dependent survival and death pathways in clinical diseases.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS Genet
                pgen
                PLoS Genetics
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                1553-7390
                1553-7404
                October 2006
                27 October 2006
                : 2
                : 10
                : e135
                Affiliations
                Baylor College of Medicine, United States of America
                Author notes
                * To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hanita@ 123456cc.huji.ac.il
                Article
                06-PLGE-RV-0068R3 plge-02-10-13
                10.1371/journal.pgen.0020135
                1626106
                17069462
                7966f264-0fe5-4fe2-b800-13be16caa431
                Copyright: © 2006 Engelberg-Kulka et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
                History
                Page count
                Pages: 9
                Categories
                Review
                Microbiology
                Molecular Biology - Structural Biology
                Genetics/Gene Function
                Genetics/Gene Expression
                Eubacteria
                Custom metadata
                Engelberg-Kulka H, Amitai S, Kolodkin-Gal I, Hazan R (2006) Bacterial programmed cell death and multicellular behavior in bacteria. PLoS Genet 2(10): e135. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.0020135

                Genetics
                Genetics

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