The Translational Regulators GCN-1 and ABCF-3 Act Together to Promote Apoptosis in C. elegans

The proper regulation of apoptosis requires precise spatial and temporal control of gene expression. While the transcriptional and translational activation of pro-apoptotic genes is known to be crucial to triggering apoptosis, how different mechanisms cooperate to drive apoptosis is largely unexplored. Here we report that pro-apoptotic transcriptional and translational regulators act in distinct pathways to promote programmed cell death. We show that the evolutionarily conserved C. elegans translational regulators GCN-1 and ABCF-3 contribute to promoting the deaths of most somatic cells during development. GCN-1 and ABCF-3 are not obviously involved in the physiological germ-cell deaths that occur during oocyte maturation. By striking contrast, these proteins play an essential role in the deaths of germ cells in response to ionizing irradiation. GCN-1 and ABCF-3 are similarly co-expressed in many somatic and germ cells and physically interact i