Cat3: A New Bioinformatics Tool for Prediction of Caspase -3 Substrate Cleavage Site

Abstract

All cells in multicellular organisms such as insects, plants, and human undergo many physiological processes to keep the organism alive. Cell division and cell death are two major processes that should occur in harmony to keep the homeostasis “internal environmental balance” of the organism. The ability of the cell to self-destruct when it faces harsh conditions or stress is important for the multicellular organism as the ability to produce new cells. Because of the process of cell death, the over all number of cells in any adult healthy organism remains constant. This critical process is called apoptosis or programmed cell death. Apoptosis or programmed cell death is a genetically highly conserved cellular function. It was firstly identified in 1972 by Andrew Wyllie and his colleagues who published a paper that described the cell death process of apoptosis . The term apoptosis is of Greek origin, and is used to describe the falling of a petal from a flower or the loss of a leaf from a tree