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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Strategies for Tracking Anastasis, A Cell Survival Phenomenon that Reverses Apoptosis
Published on: February 16, 2015
Living with death: the evolution of the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis in animals
A Oberst1, C Bender, D R Green
1Department of Immunology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105, USA.
Abstract:
The mitochondrial pathway of cell death, in which apoptosis proceeds following mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization, release of cytochrome c, and APAF-1 apoptosome-mediated caspase activation, represents the major pathway of physiological apoptosis in vertebrates. However, the well-characterized apoptotic pathways of the invertebrates C. elegans and D. melanogaster indicate that this apoptotic pathway is not universally conserved among animals. This review will compare the role of the mitochondria in the apoptotic programs of mammals, nematodes, and flies, and will survey our knowledge of the apoptotic pathways of other, less familiar model organisms in an effort to explore the evolutionary origins of the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis.
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