Cleaning up the mess: cell corpse clearance in Caenorhabditis elegans

Genetic and cell biology studies have led to the identification in Caenorhabditis elegans of a set of evolutionary conserved cellular mechanisms responsible for the clearance of apoptotic cells. Based on the phenotype of cell corpse clearance mutants, corpse clearance can be divided into three distinct, but linked steps: corpse recognition, corpse internalization, and corpse degradation. Work in recent years has led to a better understanding of the molecular pathways that mediate each of these steps. Here, we review recent developments in our understanding of in vivo cell corpse clearance in this simple but most elegant model organism.