Apoptosis Database

Description [+]

Synonyms: CED-9
Species: Metazoa;Bilateria;Ecdysozoa;Nematoda; Caenorhabditis elegans
Short gene description: ced-9 encodes the sole C. elegans homolog of the mammalian cell-death inhibitor Bcl-2. during development, CED-9 activity is essential for preventing cells from undergoing programmed cell death and CED-9 functions by binding and repressing the activity of CED-4, a protein similar to human APAF-1 that positively regulates CED-3 caspase activity. CED-9 localizes to mitochondria. [Source: WormBase]
Family: Bcl-2 family : multidomain Bcl-2
Process: apoptosis,
Pathways:
Criteria: manually curated
Curator comment:
Human ortholog(s): BCL2L2
WIKI: CED-9-C_elegans

References [+]

Caenorhabditis elegans gene ced-9 protects cells from programmed cell death.
Hengartner MO, Ellis RE, Horvitz HR
The gene ced-9 of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans acts to protect cells from programmed cell death. A mutation that abnormally activates ced-9 prevents the cell deaths that occur during normal C. elegans development. Conversely, mutations that inactivate ced-9 cause cells that normally live to undergo programmed cell death; these mutations result in embryonic lethality, indicating that ced-9 function is essential for development. The ced-9 gene functions by negatively regulating the activities of other genes that are required for the process of programmed cell death. Nature. 1992 Apr 9;356(6369):494-9.

bcl-w, a novel member of the bcl-2 family, promotes cell survival.
Gibson L, Holmgreen SP, Huang DC, Bernard O, Copeland NG, Jenkins NA, Sutherland GR, Baker E, Adams JM, Cory S
The prototypic mammalian regulator of cell death is bcl-2, the oncogene implicated in the development of human follicular lymphoma. Several homologues of bcl-2 are now known. Using a PCR-based strategy we cloned a novel member of this gene family, denoted bcl-w. The gene, which is highly conserved between mouse and human, resides near the T-cell antigen receptor alpha gene within the central portion of mouse chromosome 14 and on human chromosome 14 at band q11. Enforced expression of bcl-w rendered lymphoid and myeloid cells refractory to several (but not all) cytotoxic conditions. Thus, like Bcl-2 and Bcl-x, the Bcl-w protein promotes cell survival, in contrast to other close homologues, Bax and Bak, which facilitate cell death. Comparison of the expected amino acid sequence of Bcl-w with that of these relatives helps to delineate residues likely to convey survival or anti-survival function. While expression of bcl-w was uncommon in B or T lymphoid cell lines, the mRNA was observed in almost all murine myeloid cell lines analysed and in a wide range of tissues. These findings suggest that bcl-w participates in the control of apoptosis in multiple cell types. Its functional similarity to bcl-2 also makes it an attractive candidate proto-oncogene. Oncogene. 1996 Aug 15;13(4):665-75.

Structure & Sequence [+]

Pfam domains: (Pfam is a large collection of protein families.)

Source	Domain Name	Start	End
PFAM A	BH4	76	102
PFAM A	Bcl-2	116	221

Protein sequence [+]

Structure links:

Evolution [+]

Gene Ontology [+]

GO id	Name	Ontology type	Evidence
GO:0008270	zinc ion binding	mollecular_function	IEA

Information from other databases [+]

Gene related links:

Protein related links:

Other links

Click on [?] for more information.

CED-9 (Caenorhabditis elegans)