BOK (gene) - Knock-out Mouse

Knock-out Mouse

Since its discovery in 1997, several attempts have been made to characterize Bok. Due to the increased expression levels in fetal tissue, scientists anticipated a developmental role for Bok. Recently, the Bok knock-out mouse was created. This mouse shows, however, no developmental defects and normal fertility. This finding indicates that the function of Bok seems to overlap with the function of the related pro-apoptotic proteins Bak and Bax.

Several other roles were proposed for Bok, especially in developing cells. Since the action of Bok in triggering apoptosis seems to be redundant, it is difficult to assign a specific role to Bok in the presence of Bak and Bax. The study of cells deficient in Bak and Bok or deficient in Bax and Bok, respectively, could help to better characterize the role of Bok in apoptosis. If Bok exerts a critical function, it is likely that this function is limited to certain circumstances, e.g. specific cell types, stress conditions. Thus, these aspects should be assessed in more detail to analyze the physiological and pathological role of Bok.