A comparison of the expression and properties of Apaf-1 and Apaf-1L

Apaf-1 is a mammalian homolog of CED-4 that regulates cell death by participating in a ternary complex with cytochrome c, and procaspase-9. In the case of CED-4, two splice variants exist. The smaller (CED-4S) is proapoptotic while the larger (CED-4L) contains a short in-frame insert and is anti-apoptotic. We cloned a murine variant of apaf-1, termed apaf-1L, which contains an eleven amino acid insert similar to a recently described human apaf-1L clone. apaf-1 and apaf-1L have similar distributions in adult and fetal tissues, although apaf-1L transcripts are more abundant. Apaf-1L, undergoes homomerization and heteromerization with Apaf-1 in yeast. Apaf-1L also binds to caspase-9 and a dominant-negative isoform of caspase-9. Unlike CED-4, neither Apaf-1 variant was lethal in yeast. However, both Apaf-1 and Apaf-1L elicit cell death when cotransfected with caspase-9 into 293 EBNA cells. Although Apaf-1L was more potent than Apaf-1, their biological properties were qualitatively similar.