During embryonic development, the programmed death of certain cells plays an essential role in shaping organs and allowing proper growth. This cell death is in some cases an effect of autophagy, a key cellular process responsible for the degradation and recycling of damaged or unwanted cellular components and which, taken to the extreme, may end up eliminating the cell itself.
Click here for original story, Number of DNA copies influences the cell death process that shapes organs during embryonic development: Study
Source: Phys.org