<figcaption> Credit: Courtesy of The International Union of Crystallography</figcaption>
Credit: Courtesy of The International Union of Crystallography

S.N. Willis et al., ?Apoptosis initiated when BH3 ligands engage multiple Bcl-2 homologs, not Bax or Bak,? Science, 315:856?9, Feb. 9, 2007.

The authors leverage knockout mice lacking BH3-only ?activators? to examine how the Bcl2 protein family controls apoptosis. The work argues against direct activation of Bax/Bak by certain activating BH3-only proteins. Instead, BH3-only proteins appear to control apoptosis by neutralizing pro-survival Bcl2 family members.

John Abrams,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

S.K. Hansen et al., ?Evolution of species interaction in a biofilm community,? Nature, 445:533?6, Feb. 1, 2007.

When grown in a dual-species consortium using benzyl alcohol as the sole carbon source, Pseudomonas putida, (Pp) uses benzoate produced by Acinetobacter strain C6; here, it is shown that mutations arise and are selected for in Pp to generate a closer spatial association between the...

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