Cell death
The death of a cell is a highly regulated process that occurs frequently throughout development. Current research shows that there are four different ways a cell can die, programmed cell death, necrosis, autophagy, and cytotoxic cell death. Research in C. elegans pioneered the discovery of the molecular pathway responsible for programmed cell death. More recent work using this model organism has made headways into elucidating the genes involved in regulating and impacting these other methods of cell death. There is controversy as to whether or not cell death by autophagy has been observed in C. elegans animals; however, an aspect of autophagy, macroautophagy, has been reported.