"To determinethe nature of HBx-induced cell death, we introduced the PhspHBx transgenes into animals defective in
ced-3, which encodes a caspase essential for apoptosis (21), or animals defectivein
mec-6, which is important for necrosis (22). A strong loss-of-function (lf) mutation in
ced-3(
n2433) or
mec-6(
e1342) partially suppressed embryonic lethality caused by HBx overexpression (Fig. 1B), indicating that both apoptotic and necrotic cell death contributes to lethality of HBx transgenic embryos."