Members in the Bcl-2 family are critical regulators of apoptosis by either inhibiting or promoting cell death. Bcl-2 homology 3 (BH3) domain is a potent death domain. BH3 domain containing pro-apoptotic proteins, including Bad, Bax, Bid, Bik, Hrk, Nip3, and Bim, form a growingsubclass of the Bcl-2 family. A novel BH3 domaincontaining protein was recently identified and designated Bnip3L/NIX, Bnip3a, and Nix (for Nip3-like protein X) (Matsushima, M. et al.; Yasuda, M. et al.; Chen, G, et al.).Bnip3L/Bnip3a/Nix is a homolog of the E1B 19K/Bcl-2 binding and pro-apoptotic protein Bnip3. Over expression of Bnip3L/NIX induces apoptosis (Yasuda, M. et al.; Chen, G, et al.). Bnip3L/NIX interacts withand overcomes suppresses by Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. Bnip3L/NIX is localized in mitochondria. The messenger RNA of Bnip3L/NIX is ubiquitously expressed in human tissues (Matsushima, M. et al.; Yasuda, M. et al.). Bnip3L/NIX and Bnip3 form a new subfamily of the pro-apoptotic mitochondrial proteins.

 This product was previously labelled as BNIP3L