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Molecular mechanisms of cell death

We shifted a number of years ago from studying cytotoxicity in mouse to studying cell death first in mouse then in Dictyostelium discoideum. In the latter, cell death occurs during starvation-induced development, but can be studied in cell monolayers. Double-signaling by starvation then in particular by the differentiation factor DIF-1 leads to death with vacuolization and cellulose walls. The molecular bases of these events are being studied using random insertional mutagenesis.