Apoptosis or Programmed cell death (PCD) is a regulated process of cell death where unwanted or damaged cells are eliminated. It is an important component of a cell’s growth, development, and homeostasis in multicellular organisms. The programmed cell death process consists of the cell’s cytoplasm condensing and within an hour getting phagocytized by the neighbouring cell. Throughout the whole process, the cell’s membrane is still intact and this prevents the contents of the cell from getting released into the tissue.
The origin of apoptosis is one that has been linked very closely to the origin of multicellularity in eukaryotes. However, the cell death process found in mammalian cells can be connected to early unicellular eukaryotes and …show more content…
It is also evident that the morphological components of apoptosis has been conserved throughout the evolution of apoptosis by genetic control. Despite this, many discoveries have found some indistinguishable PCD features between mammalian cells and unicellular cells. More specifically, the unicellular eukaryote L. major clearly expresses many features that can also be inspected in mammalian cells.
Leishmania major is a protozoan parasite from an ancient phylogenetic branch of unicellular eukaryote who only has a single mitochondrion. To begin, a protein kinase inhibitory drug, staurosporine, can induce apoptosis in mammalian cells and it can also induce like features in L. major. This draws an important connection between unicellular eukaryotes and mammalian cells because multicellularity emerged after unicellular eukaryotes thus this means that the multicellular eukaryotes must have inherited their apoptosis functions from their unicellular eukaryotic ancestors. Some features of the programmed cell death that are expressed by L. major cells during the process is cell shrinkage, phosphatidyl serine exposure on the cell surface, mitochondrial transmembrane potential disruption and the degradation of the cell’s DNA. Other drugs — UV treatment, heat shock, etc.— that typically induce apoptosis in mammalian cells can also get similar results from L. major. This goes …show more content…
There is scientific evidence to support this because the phylogenetic distribution of the gene domain sequences relating to the PCD process found in multicellular eukaryotes can also be identified in unicellular organisms. The distribution of the gene domain sequences for the PCD process in multicellular eukaryotes, is a result of duplication, co-option, recruitment, and shuffling of the single domain proteins and domain combinations already present in the unicellular
The origin of apoptosis is one that has been linked very closely to the origin of multicellularity in eukaryotes. However, the cell death process found in mammalian cells can be connected to early unicellular eukaryotes and …show more content…
It is also evident that the morphological components of apoptosis has been conserved throughout the evolution of apoptosis by genetic control. Despite this, many discoveries have found some indistinguishable PCD features between mammalian cells and unicellular cells. More specifically, the unicellular eukaryote L. major clearly expresses many features that can also be inspected in mammalian cells.
Leishmania major is a protozoan parasite from an ancient phylogenetic branch of unicellular eukaryote who only has a single mitochondrion. To begin, a protein kinase inhibitory drug, staurosporine, can induce apoptosis in mammalian cells and it can also induce like features in L. major. This draws an important connection between unicellular eukaryotes and mammalian cells because multicellularity emerged after unicellular eukaryotes thus this means that the multicellular eukaryotes must have inherited their apoptosis functions from their unicellular eukaryotic ancestors. Some features of the programmed cell death that are expressed by L. major cells during the process is cell shrinkage, phosphatidyl serine exposure on the cell surface, mitochondrial transmembrane potential disruption and the degradation of the cell’s DNA. Other drugs — UV treatment, heat shock, etc.— that typically induce apoptosis in mammalian cells can also get similar results from L. major. This goes …show more content…
There is scientific evidence to support this because the phylogenetic distribution of the gene domain sequences relating to the PCD process found in multicellular eukaryotes can also be identified in unicellular organisms. The distribution of the gene domain sequences for the PCD process in multicellular eukaryotes, is a result of duplication, co-option, recruitment, and shuffling of the single domain proteins and domain combinations already present in the unicellular