Connecting Zinc to Apoptosis through BAK

22 December 2006

Nancy R Gough

An article in Molecular Cell by Moldeoveanu et al. suggests that the ability of Bak to promote mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization is inhibited by zinc-induced dimerization. This provides a link between zinc concentrations and apoptosis, thereby expanding the roles for zinc in controlling cell physiology.

Reference
T. Moldoveanu, Q. Liu, A. Tocilj, M. Watson, G. Shore, K. Gehring, Thee X-ray structure of a BAK homodimer reveals an inhibitory zinc binding site. Mol. Cell 24, 677-688 (2006). [Abstract]