This edited volume discusses the evolution of cell death in microorganisms by providing new theoretical models and experimental studies of microorganisms, both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. It incorporates the latest findings and evidence for bacterial self-destruction, cell-death in multicellular fungi, and potential cell-death mechanisms in unicellular species of algae, parasites, and pathogenic yeast.

Mechanisms of self-destruction by individual cells were assumed to arise during evolution with multicellular organisms, which require cell death to generate the complex structures of plants and animals. Current opinion, however, supports an alternative evolutionary history. Arguments from biologists and theorists suggest that programmed cell death likely pre-dates the evolution of multicellular organisms.

This volume will prove valuable for microbiologists and cell biologists working in the field of molecular evolution and apoptosis research and might spark new ideas for future applications in science and medicine.