Molecular and Genetic Characteristics of Cell Death in Prokaryotes

Abstract

Maintaining cellular homeostasis in biological systems is the basic principle that ensures the functioning of organs and systems. At the cellular level, this process is regulated by genetically determined efferent signals. During evolution, biological systems developed hierarchically varying mechanisms of molecular genetic regulation of cell death. Numerous studies of extra- and intracellular mechanisms of programmed cell death (PCD) in eukaryotes have shown the complexity and the physiological selectivity of this phenomenon, which has been greatly important in medicine. In prokaryotes, the mechanisms and regulation of cell death have been studied less, but research of them has the great interest to characterize the existence of microbial communities. The aim of this review is to provide molecular genetic characteristics of cell death in prokaryotes based on available data.