Volume 29, No 12, Dec 2019

ISSN: 1001-0602 
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018 
impact factor 17.848* 
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)

Volume 29 Issue 12, December 2019: 967-968

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

BAX and BAK become killers without a BH3 trigger

Jerry M. Adams¹

¹The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, 1G Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
Correspondence:

It is widely believed that triggering mitochondria-dependent apoptosis requires that certain pro-apoptotic BH3-only proteins (e.g., BID, BIM, etc.) of the BCL-2 family directly engage and activate the family’s essential effector proteins BAX and BAK, whose oligomerization then permeabilizes the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM), committing the cell to apoptosis. However, by reconstituting a cell line engineered to lack all eight of the accepted BH3-only proteins, Huang et al. obtained evidence that these apoptotic triggers primarily target the anti-apoptotic BCL-2 relatives BCL-XL and MCL-1, concomitant neutralization of which enabled membrane-mediated spontaneous activation of BAX/BAK.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-019-0253-5

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