Document Type
Article
Department
Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Abstract
In the face of harsh conditions and given a choice, a cell may (i) undergo programmed cell death, (ii) transform into a cancer cell, or (iii) enclose itself into a cyst form. In metazoans, the available evidence suggests that cellular machinery exists only to execute or avoid programmed cell death, while the ability to form a cyst was either lost or never developed. For cyst-forming free-living protists, here we pose the question whether the ability to encyst was gained at the expense of the programmed cell death or both functions coexist to counter unfavorable environmental conditions with mutually exclusive phenotypes.
Publication (Name of Journal)
Biomed Research International
Recommended Citation
Khan, N. A.,
Iqbal, J.,
Siddiqui, R.
(2015). Stress management in cyst-forming free-living protists: programmed cell death and/or encystment. Biomed Research International, 2015, 437534.
Available at:
https://ecommons.aku.edu/pakistan_fhs_mc_bbs/651
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.