The deadly landscape of pro-apoptotic BCL-2 proteins in the outer mitochondrial membrane.

ABSTRACT: Apoptosis is a biological process that removes damaged, excess or infected cells through a genetically controlled mechanism. This process plays a crucial role in organismal development, immunity and tissue homeostasis, and alterations in apoptosis contribute to human diseases including cancer and auto-immunity. In the past two decades, significant efforts have focused on understanding the function of the BCL-2 proteins, a complex family of pro-survival and pro-apoptotic α-helical proteins that directly control the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Diverse structural investigations of the BCL-2 family members have broadened our mechanistic understanding of their individual functions. However, an often over-looked aspect of the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis is how the BCL-2 family spe

SUBMITTER: Luna-Vargas MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4907887 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature