Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Book

BAX Gene

Randy Carpenter  1 , Mark F. Brady  2
In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan.
.
Affiliations
Free Books & Documents
Book

BAX Gene

Randy Carpenter et al.
Free Books & Documents

Excerpt

The mechanisms of apoptosis may help elucidate the pathologies of uncontrolled cell growth or death. Apoptosis is under the mediation of 2 major pathways: the extrinsic or death receptor pathway and the intrinsic or mitochondrial pathway. The intrinsic pathway is controlled and regulated by the Bcl-2 (B-cell lymphoma 2) family of proteins. The proteins in this family can be classified by their anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2, Bcl-x, Bcl-w, Mcl-1, and A1/Bfl-1) or pro-apoptotic (Bax, Bak, and Bok/Mtd) actions. Both pathways result in caspase activation, leading to the termination of cell life. The BAX gene (Bcl-2 Associated X-protein) is a pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 gene family; it encodes a 21-kDa protein named BAX-alpha, whose association with Bcl-2 researchers believe plays a critical role in regulating intrinsic apoptosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Randy Carpenter declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Mark Brady declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

References

    1. Chipuk JE, Kuwana T, Bouchier-Hayes L, Droin NM, Newmeyer DD, Schuler M, Green DR. Direct activation of Bax by p53 mediates mitochondrial membrane permeabilization and apoptosis. Science. 2004 Feb 13;303(5660):1010-4. - PubMed
    1. Reed JC. Mechanisms of apoptosis. Am J Pathol. 2000 Nov;157(5):1415-30. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Martinou JC, Youle RJ. Mitochondria in apoptosis: Bcl-2 family members and mitochondrial dynamics. Dev Cell. 2011 Jul 19;21(1):92-101. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Apte SS, Mattei MG, Olsen BR. Mapping of the human BAX gene to chromosome 19q13.3-q13.4 and isolation of a novel alternatively spliced transcript, BAX delta. Genomics. 1995 Apr 10;26(3):592-4. - PubMed
    1. Narita M, Shimizu S, Ito T, Chittenden T, Lutz RJ, Matsuda H, Tsujimoto Y. Bax interacts with the permeability transition pore to induce permeability transition and cytochrome c release in isolated mitochondria. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Dec 08;95(25):14681-6. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources