The C-terminus of bax is not a membrane addressing/anchoring signal

It has been suggested that BCL-2 family members associate with certain organelles through their hydrophobic C-terminus which in the case of bcl-2, appears to play a key role in the regulation of apoptosis. We have investigated the association of bax with microsomal, nuclear and mitochondrial membranes using a cell-free system and found, contrary to bcl-2, that bax binds poorly to these organelles. Deletion of the C-terminal of bax (baxDeltaC) or exchanging the C-terminal ends of bax and bcl-XL suggests that the bax C-terminus is not an addressing/anchoring signal. In agreement with this observation, HL-60 cells transfected with either bax or baxDeltaC show no difference in sensitivity to an apoptotic signal. In the cell-free system, at low pH, bax becomes associated with mitochondria after a change of conformation, a result consistant with its structural homology with certain bacterial toxins. In HL-60 cells, as observed in the cell-free system, bax acquired a protease resistant conformation upon its translocation from the cytosol to the mitochondria after the induction of apoptosis.