Cell-dependent propagation of the ‘self’ is the driver of all species, organisms, and even genes. Conceivably, elimination of these entities is caused by cellular death. Then, how can genes that cause the death of the same cell evolve? Programmed cell death (PCD) is the gene-dependent self-inflicted death. In multicellular organisms, PCD of a cell confers fitness to the surviving rest of the organism, which thereby allows the selection of genes responsible for PCD. However, PCD in free-living bacteria is intriguing; the death of the cell is the death of the organism. How can such PCD genes be selected in unicellular organisms? The bacterial PCD in a population is proposed to confer fitness to the surviving kin in the form of sporulation, nutrition, infection-containment, and matrix materials. While the cell-centred view leading to propositions of ‘altruism’ is enticing, the gene-centred view of ‘selfism’ is neglected. In this opinion piece, we reconceptualize the PCD propositions as genetic selfism (death due to loss/mutation of selfish genes) rather than cellular altruism (death for the conferment of fitness to kin). Within the scope and the available evidence, we opine that some of the PCD-like observations in bacteria seem to be the manifestation of genetic selfism by Restriction-Modification systems and Toxin-Antitoxin systems.

中文翻译：

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“细菌性程序性细胞死亡”：细胞利他主义还是遗传自我主义？

“自我”的细胞依赖性繁殖是所有物种，生物甚至基因的驱动力。可以想象，这些实体的消除是由细胞死亡引起的。那么，导致同一细胞死亡的基因又如何进化呢？程序性细胞死亡（PCD）是基因依赖性的自残死亡。在多细胞生物中，细胞的PCD赋予其存活的其余生物以适应性，从而可以选择负责PCD的基因。但是，自由生存细菌中的PCD令人着迷。细胞的死亡就是生物的死亡。如何在单细胞生物中选择此类PCD基因？有人提出细菌PCD以孢子形成，营养，感染控制和基质材料的形式赋予幸存亲戚以适应性。虽然导致“利他主义”命题的以细胞为中心的观点很诱人，但“自我主义”的以基因为中心的观点却被忽略了。在这篇观点中，我们将PCD命题重新概念化为遗传自我主义（由于自私基因的丢失/突变导致的死亡），而不是细胞利他主义（赋予亲属适应性的死亡）。在范围和可用证据的范围内，我们认为细菌中某些类似于PCD的观察似乎是限制性修饰系统和毒素抗毒素系统的遗传自我主义的表现。