TY - JOUR
T1 - Bax forms two types of channels, one of which is voltage-gated
AU - Lin, Shang H.
AU - Perera, Meenu N.
AU - Nguyen, Toan
AU - Datskovskiy, Debra
AU - Miles, Megan
AU - Colombini, Marco
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (MCB-1023008).
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - When activated, the proapoptotic protein Bax permeabilizes the mitochondrial outer membrane, allowing the release of proteins into the cytosol and thus initiating the execution phase of apoptosis. When activated Bax was reconstituted into phospholipid membranes, we discovered a new, to our knowledge, property of Bax channels: voltage gating. We also found that the same Bax sample under the same experimental conditions could give rise to two radically different channels: Type A, which is small, well behaved, homogeneous, and voltage-gated, and Type B, which is large, noisy, and voltage-independent. One Type B channel can be converted irreversibly into a population of Type A channels by the addition of La3+. This conversion process appears to involve a two-dimensional budding mechanism. The existence of these two types of Bax channels suggests a process for controlling the degree of mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization.
AB - When activated, the proapoptotic protein Bax permeabilizes the mitochondrial outer membrane, allowing the release of proteins into the cytosol and thus initiating the execution phase of apoptosis. When activated Bax was reconstituted into phospholipid membranes, we discovered a new, to our knowledge, property of Bax channels: voltage gating. We also found that the same Bax sample under the same experimental conditions could give rise to two radically different channels: Type A, which is small, well behaved, homogeneous, and voltage-gated, and Type B, which is large, noisy, and voltage-independent. One Type B channel can be converted irreversibly into a population of Type A channels by the addition of La3+. This conversion process appears to involve a two-dimensional budding mechanism. The existence of these two types of Bax channels suggests a process for controlling the degree of mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.bpj.2011.09.041
DO - 10.1016/j.bpj.2011.09.041
M3 - Article
C2 - 22067154
AN - SCOPUS:80455129100
VL - 101
SP - 2163
EP - 2169
JO - Biophysical Journal
JF - Biophysical Journal
SN - 0006-3495
IS - 9
ER -