Discovery of 'Sayonara' Protein Challenges Textbook Knowledge in Fruit Flies
RIKEN geneticists have discovered a BH3-only protein in fruit flies, which detects stress in cells and initiates apoptosis, a process of programmed cell death. This protein was previously thought to be absent in fruit flies and possibly all insects. The team named the gene that encodes for it sayonara. The finding implies that fruit flies and other insects have a similar mechanism for regulating apoptosis as humans and nematodes. The team is now exploring what happens after the BH3-only protein is activated and if other insects have BH3-only proteins.