Doughnuts, daisy chains and crescent moons: the quest for the elusive apoptotic pore.

How the two killer proteins Bax and Bak form the putative “apoptotic pore” that is responsible for irrevocably damaging mitochondria leading to cell death during apoptosis is considered the “holy grail” of apoptosis research. Indeed, even whether Bax and Bak form a pore remains contentious largely due to the failure to detect such structures in cells or mitochondria. Two new super-resolution microscopy studies in this issue of The EMBO Journal now provide tantalising evidence of ringlike “apoptotic pores” on mitochondria of dying cells and provide new insight into how Bax and Bak bring about a cell’s demise.