A programmed cell death process which begins when a cell receives an internal (e.g. DNA damage) or external signal (e.g. an extracellular death ligand), and proceeds through a series of biochemical events (signaling pathway phase) which trigger an execution phase. The execution phase is the last step of an apoptotic process, and is typically characterized by rounding-up of the cell, retraction of pseudopodes, reduction of cellular volume (pyknosis), chromatin condensation, nuclear fragmentation (karyorrhexis), plasma membrane blebbing and fragmentation of the cell into apoptotic bodies. When the execution phase is completed, the cell has died.

Any process in which a protein is transported to, and/or maintained in, a specific location at the level of a cell. Localization at the cellular level encompasses movement within the cell, from within the cell to the cell surface, or from one location to another at the surface of a cell.

The modification of histone H2A by addition of a single ubiquitin group to lysine-119 (H2A- K119) in metazoans, and at the equivalent residue in other organisms.

The process in which anatomical structures are generated and organized. Morphogenesis pertains to the creation of form.

A membrane-bounded organelle of eukaryotic cells in which chromosomes are housed and replicated. In most cells, the nucleus contains all of the cell's chromosomes except the organellar chromosomes, and is the site of RNA synthesis and processing. In some species, or in specialized cell types, RNA metabolism or DNA replication may be absent.

The ordered and organized complex of DNA, protein, and sometimes RNA, that forms the chromosome in the nucleus.

A structure found in a male mammalian spermatocyte containing an unpaired X chromosome that has become densely heterochromatic, silenced and localized at the nuclear periphery.

A chromatin-associated multiprotein complex containing Polycomb Group proteins. In Drosophila, Polycomb group proteins are involved in the long-term maintenance of gene repression, and PcG protein complexes associate with Polycomb group response elements (PREs) in target genes to regulate higher-order chromatin structure.