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'Bacterial Programmed Cell Death': cellular altruism or genetic selfism?

Bhaskar Chandra Mohan Ramisetty1, Pavithra Anantharaman Sudhakari1

  • 1Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Evolution, 312@ASK1, School of Chemical and Biotechnology, SASTRA Deemed University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India 613401.

FEMS Microbiology Letters
|August 22, 2020
PubMed
Summary

Programmed cell death (PCD) in bacteria is re-examined. The authors propose that bacterial PCD is driven by genetic selfism, not cellular altruism, particularly in systems like Restriction-Modification and Toxin-Antitoxin.

Keywords:
fitnessplasmidpost-segregational killingrestriction–modification systemsselfish genestoxin–antitoxin systems

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