Power, Sex, Suicide-Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane

Author:Nick Lane
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science, Health, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9780199205646
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2005-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

PART 5

Murder or Suicide

The Troubled Birth of the Individual

When cells in the body become worn

out or damaged, they die by

enforced suicide, or apoptosis. The

cell blebs, is packaged up, and

reabsorbed. If the mechanisms

controlling apoptosis fail, the result

is cancer, a conflict of interest

between cells and the body as a

whole. Apoptosis seems to be

necessary for the integrity and

cohesion of multicellular individuals,

but how did once-independent cells

come to accept death for the greater

good? Today apoptosis is policed by

mitochondria, and the machinery of

death was inherited from their

bacterial ancestors, suggesting a

history of murder. So was the

cohesion of the individual forged in

deadly conflict?

Death by apoptosis—mitochondria

determine whether a cell lives or dies by

enforced suicide

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