Programmed cell death is usually seen as the unique prerogative of plants and animals. So how is it that photosynthetic plankton have been killing themselves by uncannily similar methods for billions of years? Nick Lane investigates.
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Additional information
Nick Lane is author of Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life.
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Lane, N. Marine microbiology: Origins of Death. Nature 453, 583–585 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453583a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/453583a
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