Combined reduction in the expression of MCL-1 and BCL-2 reduces organismal size in mice

The intrinsic apoptotic pathway is controlled by the BCL-2 family of proteins, which exhibit either a pro-death or pro-survival function. Gene knockout studies revealed that different pro-survival BCL-2 proteins are critical for the survival of distinct cell types, although overlapping functions amongst such proteins have also been identified. In the process of studying mice lacking single alleles of Mcl-1 ( Mcl-1 +/− ) , Bcl-2 ( Bcl-2 +/− ), or...