Bax and Bak, two functionally similar, pro-apoptotic proteins of the Bcl-2 family, are known
as the gateway to apoptosis because of their requisite roles as effectors of mitochondrial …

Highlights•BH3s initiate apoptosis by activating BAX/BAK or inactivating anti-death BCL-
2s.•BID, BIM, PUMA, and NOXA directly induce stepwise bimodal activation of BAX and …

In spite of the available genetic, biochemical and structural data, precisely how the initiators
of apoptosis, the BH3-only proteins, trigger Bax and Bak to cause organellar damage …

How BH3-only proteins activate Bax/Bak, the two gateway proteins of the mitochondria-
dependent apoptotic pathway, remains incompletely understood. Although all pro-apoptotic …

Critical issues in apoptosis include the importance of caspases versus organelle
dysfunction, dominance of anti-versus proapoptotic BCL-2 members, and whether …

It has been widely accepted that mitochondria-dependent apoptosis initiates when select
BH3-only proteins (BID, BIM, etc.) directly engage and allosterically activate effector proteins …

The mechanism by which the cell death mediator Bax becomes activated to cause
mitochondrial damage, a key step for the intrinsic pathway to apoptosis, remain highly …

The Bcl-2 family of proteins controls the mitochondrial pathway to apoptosis. It consists of
pro-survival and pro-apoptotic members, and their interactions decide whether apoptogenic …

A central issue in the control of apoptosis is whether its essential mediators Bax and Bak
must be restrained by Bcl-2-like prosurvival relatives to prevent their damaging mitochondria …

The mitochondrial apoptotic pathway is a highly regulated biological mechanism which
determines cell fate. It is defined as a cascade of events, going from an apoptotic stimulus to …