Biological process

The process that results in the movement of cytochrome c from the mitochondrial intermembrane space into the cytosol, which is part of the apoptotic signaling pathway and leads to caspase activation.

The release of cytochrome c from mitochondria is a central event in the signaling phase of the apoptotic process, and it is often used by researchers to monitor this type of cell death. Any event that induces apoptosis will at some point induce the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria. Therefore, this term should only be used to annotate gene products that are directly involved in this process. An example is Drp1 (DNM1L, UniProt symbol O00429) in PMID:20850011.