The DAD1 protein, whose defect causes apoptotic cell death, maps to human chromosome 14

Programmed cell death (PCD) is an important process in the development of animal embryos. Once this mechanism takes over, cells die by a process known as apoptosis in which the cells undergo a characteristic set of changes including cell shriveling and DNA breakdown. In the biological systems in which PCD has been investigated, it appears that specific pathways that lead to apoptosis exist. Some of the genes whose products act in these pathways have been characterized extensively in Caenorhabditis elegans (such as the gene ced-9) and in mammalian cells (such as Bc12). One gene whose protein product probably acts in a PCD pathway is the recently identified DAD1 gene. The DAD1 gene was shown to have a point mutation in tsBN7 cells that results in loss of DAD1 function at the nonpermissive temperature. The DAD1 gene encodes a 12.5-kDa protein that is expressed throughout the body at high levels. 14 refs., 1 fig.