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| Modern Genetic Analysis Chapter 15. Regulation of Cell Number: Normal and Cancer Cells The Machinery or Programmed Cell Death Figure 15-5. The role of executioner caspases in apoptosis. A cascade of caspase activation leads to the activation of the executioner caspases. Cleavage of the zymogen (inactive precursor) form of the executioner caspase by another caspase takes place at several aspartate residues, producing several protein fragments. Two of these fragments, the large and small subunits, bind and form the enzymatically active caspase. Through cleavage of a series of target proteins (also by cleavage at aspartate residues in the target proteins), the various cellular breakdown events take place, leading to cell death and removal.

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