Bax forms multispanning monomers that oligomerize to permeabilize membranes during apoptosis

Bax promotes cell death by permeabilizing mitochondrial outer membranes by an unresolved mechanism. However, in cells lacking the gene c‐myc, membrane permeabilization by Bax is blocked by changes in the mitochondria that prevent Bax oligomerization. Drug‐treated c‐myc null cells and cells expressing Myc were used to map the topology of Bax in membranes prior to and after mitochondrial permeabilization. Chemical labeling of single cysteine …