The control of apoptosis in Drosophila.

Although several genes involved in apoptosis have been identified recently, the mechanisms that regulate and execute this process are still not fully understood. Drosophila is providing powerful new approaches for studying both the signalling pathways that activate apoptosis, and the components of the basic cell death programme. Here, we summarize progress in understanding how distinct signals influence the death of particular cells in Drosophila, and then review recent results that suggest these act through a single pathway in which the reaper gene product plays a central role.