Abstract
The unique features of programmed cell death during C. elegans development provide an outstanding system to decipher the mechanisms governing phagocytic removal of apoptotic cells. Like in many other organisms, phagocytosis in C. elegans involves several essential events, including exposure of eat-me signals on the cell corpse surface, cell corpse recognition and engulfment by phagocytes, and maturation of phagosomes for cell corpse destruction. Forward or reverse genetic approaches, microscopy-based cell biological methods, and biochemical assays have successfully been employed to identify key factors that control different steps of phagocytosis and to understand their functions in these cellular events. In this chapter, we mainly describe how to apply genetic and cell biological approaches to dissect cell corpse removal by phagocytosis in C. elegans.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Isabel Hanson for proofreading. Research in the authors’ laboratories is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31325015 to X.W., 31230043 and 31025015 to C.Y.), the National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB835202, 2013CB910101, and 2014CB849700 to X.W., 2013CB910102 and 2011CB910102 to C.Y.), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJZD-EW-L08 to C.Y.), and an International Early Career Scientist grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to X.W.
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Cheng, S., Liu, K., Yang, C., Wang, X. (2017). Dissecting Phagocytic Removal of Apoptotic Cells in Caenorhabditis elegans . In: Botelho, R. (eds) Phagocytosis and Phagosomes. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1519. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6581-6_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6581-6_18
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