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Nature Immunology 9, 837 (1 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/ni0808-837

Research Highlights

Penetrating membranes Several models have been proposed to explain how pro- and antiapoptotic family members, despite sharing extensive structural similarity and interacting with 'activating' BH3-only members, differ in function. In PLoS Biology, Billen et al. show that interactions of Bax, Bcl-xL and Bid, which are proapoptotic, antiapoptotic and activating family members, respectively, occur on membranes to either promote or inhibit loss of membrane integrity.