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Molecular and Cellular Biology, 2000
In Drosophila melanogaster, the induction of apoptosis requires three closely linked genes, reaper(rpr), head involution defective(hid), and grim. The products of these genes induce apoptosis by activating a caspase pathway. Two very similarDrosophila caspases, DCP-1 and drICE, have been previously identified. We now show that DCP-1 has a substrate specificity that is remarkably similar to those of human caspase 3 and Caenorhabditis elegans CED-3, suggesting that DCP-1 is a death effector caspase. drICE and DCP-1 have similar yet different enzymatic specificities. Although expression of either in cultured cells induces apoptosis, neither protein was able to induce DNA fragmentation inDrosophila SL2 cells. Ectopic expression of a truncated form of dcp-1 (ΔN-dcp-1) in the developingDrosophila retina under an eye-specific promoter resulted in a small and rough eye phenotype, whereas expression of the full-length dcp-1 (fl-dcp-1) had little effect. On the other hand, expression of eithe...
Characterization of the DrosophilaCaspase, DAMM
Journal of Biological …, 2001
Caspases are main effectors of apoptosis in metazoans. Genome analysis indicates that there are seven caspases in Drosophila, six of which have been previously characterized. Here we describe the cloning and characterization of the last Drosophila ...