ABSTRACT
The elimination of cells by apoptotic cell death seems to be a universal feature of development and aging in metazoans. How are otherwise healthy cells condemned to die and what is the mechanism underlying the execution of this selfdestruct program? Approaches to these questions at the molecular level have begun to emerge from model genetic systems and several lines of evidence suggest that the physiology underlying cellular suicide is highly conserved (Jacobson et al., 1997; Steller, 1995). These models could therefore facilitate treatments for human diseases that are caused, or exacerbated by, the misregulation of apoptosis.
