Microbial hara-kiri: Exploiting lysosomal cell death in malaria parasites

January 12, 2015

The antimalarial drug chloroquine (CQ) has been sidelined in the fight against falciparum malaria due to wide-spread CQ resistance. This comment discusses the article "Validation of a chloroquine-induced cell death mechanism for clinical use against malaria" by Ch'ng et al. (2014), Cell Death Dis.

The dual role of cyclin C connects stress regulated gene expression to mitochondrial dynamics

September 14, 2014

This work summarizes the role cyclin C plays in regulating stress-responsive transcription in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, including mitochondrial fission and regulated cell death.

Effect of paraquat-induced oxidative stress on gene expression and aging of the filamentous ascomycete Podospora anserina

June 22, 2014

In this article, paraquat is used to experimentally induce strong cellular oxidative stress in Podospora anserina wild-type cultures of different age, finding that this treatment has profound effects on gene expression, growth and lifespan.

Deletion of AIF1 but not of YCA1/MCA1 protects Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans cells from caspofungin-induced programmed cell death

January 15, 2014

This work suggests that deleting AIF1 but not YCA1/MCA1 protects S. cerevisiae and Candida albicans from caspofungin-induced cell death. This is not only the first time that AIF1 has been specifically tied to cell death in Candida but also the first time that caspofungin resistance has been linked to the cell death machinery in yeast.