A high-resolution dimeric structure reveals a critical role of α-helix 9 in apoptotic Bax pore assembly in the mitochondrial membrane
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Bax functions as a proapoptotic protein perforating the mitochondrial membrane to release mitochondrial proteins and DNA that kill the cell. Structures of full-length Bax monomer in solution and core domain dimers in solution and bound to lipid/detergent bicelles reveal how Bax proteins must be activated, unfold, refold and dimerize prior to forming oligomeric pores in the membrane. In particular, amphipathic core dimer forms part of the pore wall between the nonpolar lipid bilayer and the aqueous conduit. However, atomic resolution structures of other parts of the pore were scarce. Here, we elucidate a structure of Bax C-terminal α-helix 9 (α9) in lysolipid micelles using NMR. According to this high-resolution structure the α9 regions form an amphipathic helical dimer with an extended nonpolar interface and several uncharged polar residues on the surface. Structure-guided mutagenesis and functional assessment demonstrate that the nonpolar interactions are important for Bax dimerization in and perforation of the mitochondrial membrane. Surprisingly the polar residues are also important because they form bifurcated hydrogen bonds between helical turns to stabilize each helix and thereby the dimer. Molecular dynamics simulations of an oligomer constructed with wall-forming core and transmembrane α9 dimers linked by flexible α6-α7-α8 bridges in a mitochondrial lipid bilayer generate an atomic resolution model for a stable Bax pore capable to release cytochrome C. Thus, we made an important step toward elucidating molecular mechanisms of apoptotic Bax perforation.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".