RAB-35 and ARF-6 GTPases Mediate Engulfment and Clearance Following Linker Cell-Type Death.

ABSTRACT: Clearance of dying cells is essential for development and homeostasis. Conserved genes mediate apoptotic cell removal, but whether these genes control non-apoptotic cell removal is a major open question. Linker cell-type death (LCD) is a prevalent non-apoptotic developmental cell death process with features conserved from C. elegans to vertebrates. Using microfluidics-based long-term in vivo imaging, we show that unlike apoptotic cells, the C. elegans linker cell, which dies by LCD, is competitively phagocytosed by two neighboring cells, resulting in cell splitting. Subsequent cell elimination does not require apoptotic engulfment genes. Rather, we find that RAB-35 GTPase is a key coordinator of competitive phagocytosis onset and cell degradation. RAB-35 binds CNT-1, an ARF-6 GTPase activa

SUBMITTER: Kutscher LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6200590 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature