ABSTRACT
Calcium-mediated activation of caspases is also associated with apoptosis. The apoptotic pathway involves a cascade of proteolytic events mediated by caspases, their activators, and their repressors. Caspases are cysteine proteases of a family of interleukin-1
β
-converting enzymes (ICE). A number of proteases —
ced-3, ced-4,
and
ced-9
— have been identified in the nematode
C. elegans
. Of these,
ced-3
is a caspase. A human homologue of the
ced-4
protein, called
apaf-1
, has been described (Zou
et al.
