Staurosporine induced poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase independent cell death in Dictyostelium discoideum

In the present study D. discoideum has been used as a model organism to understand the role of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in caspase independent paraptotic cell death pathways. D. discoideum lacks caspases and Bcl-2 family proteins; nevertheless it has 9 potential genes for PARP. PARP has been known to get activated in various cell death associated diseases. In this study kinetics of cell death induced by staurosporine (STS), a bacterial alkaloid, was established to unravel the role of PARP. It was found that STS induced cell death in D. discoideum did not involve PARP activation, however it involved cathepsin D. Results indicated that an alternative mechanism may be existing in D. discoideum that lacks Bcl-2 family proteins for STS induced cell death that evades Bax involvement.