Traveling Bax and Forth from Mitochondria to Control Apoptosis

Antiapoptotic Bcl-2 proteins on mitochondria inhibit prodeath proteins, such as Bax, which are found primarily in the cytosol. In this issue, Edlich et al., (2011) show that Bax and Bcl-xL interact on the mitochondrial surface and then retrotranslocate to the cytosol, effectively preventing Bax-induced permeabilization of mitochondria.