Genetics of Apoptosis

Contents

Abbreviations ix

Contributors xii

Preface xiv

Introduction xvi

Section I Molecular Biology of Apoptosis

Chapter 1 Death receptors in apoptosis

Rajani Ravi and Atul Bedi

1

1 Introduction 1

2 Death receptors and ligands 2

3 Induction of apoptosis by death receptors 2

4 Regulation of death receptor-induced apoptosis 9

5 Role of death receptor-induced apoptosis in the immune

system

21

6 Role of death receptor-induced apoptosis in development 25

7 Death receptor-induced apoptosis of tumor cells 26

8 Conclusion 31

Chapter 2 The role of caspases in apoptosis

Sharad Kumar and Dimitrios Cakouros

33

1 What are caspases? 33

2 Types of caspases 33

3 Caspase structure 35

4 Substrate specificity of caspases 35

5 Caspase activation 36

6 Regulation of caspase activation 40