BNIP3L Gene

Name	BCL2/adenovirus E1B 19kDa interacting protein 3-like
Description	This gene encodes a protein that belongs to the pro-apoptotic subfamily within the Bcl-2 family of proteins. The encoded protein binds to Bcl-2 and possesses the BH3 domain. The protein directly targets mitochondria and causes apoptotic changes, including loss of membrane potential and the release of cytochrome c. [provided by RefSeq, Feb 2015]
Summary	{"type": "root", "children": [{"type": "p", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "\n BNIP3L (also known as NIX) is a mitochondrial, BH3‐only member of the BCL2 family that plays multifaceted roles in regulating mitochondrial turnover. It functions as a receptor for selective autophagy (mitophagy), linking damaged or unwanted mitochondria to the autophagy machinery. Under hypoxic conditions, BNIP3L—together with its related family member BNIP3—is transcriptionally induced (via HIF‐dependent pathways) to promote autophagy by disrupting inhibitory interactions (such as those between BCL2 and Beclin1), thereby favoring cell survival."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "1"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}, {"type": "p", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "\n During erythroid maturation, BNIP3L is indispensable for the targeted clearance of mitochondria. Its absence hampers the incorporation of mitochondria into autophagosomes, leading to mitochondrial retention, defective red blood cell development, and anemia."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "3"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}, {"type": "p", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "\n In certain oncogenic contexts, an upregulation of BNIP3L is associated with the induction of apoptosis through the mitochondrial death pathway. For instance, oncogene‐induced secretion of factors such as IGFBP7 can elevate BNIP3L levels to trigger apoptosis."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "5"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}, {"type": "p", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "\n In neurodegenerative settings, particularly in Parkinson’s disease, BNIP3L acts downstream of the PINK1/PARK2 pathway. It is ubiquitinated by PARK2, which facilitates the recruitment of autophagic adapters and the clearance of dysfunctional mitochondria. This maintenance of mitochondrial quality is critical for neuronal survival and represents a potential neuroprotective mechanism."}, {"type": "fg", "children": [{"type": "fg_f", "ref": "6"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}]}, {"type": "t", "text": "\n "}, {"type": "p", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "\n Overall, BNIP3L is a key regulator of mitochondrial quality control, capable of tipping the balance between cell survival—through the elimination of damaged mitochondria via mitophagy—and cell death under stress conditions. Its role in erythroid differentiation, stress‐response autophagy, and as part of the mitophagy machinery in neurodegenerative disease underscores its potential as a therapeutic target in diverse pathological settings.\n "}]}, {"type": "rg", "children": [{"type": "r", "ref": 1, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Grégory Bellot, Raquel Garcia-Medina, Pierre Gounon, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Hypoxia-induced autophagy is mediated through hypoxia-inducible factor induction of BNIP3 and BNIP3L via their BH3 domains."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Mol Cell Biol (2009)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1128/MCB.00166-09"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1128/MCB.00166-09"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "19273585"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19273585"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 2, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "G Chinnadurai, S Vijayalingam, S B Gibson "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "BNIP3 subfamily BH3-only proteins: mitochondrial stress sensors in normal and pathological functions."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Oncogene (2008)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1038/onc.2009.49"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2009.49"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "19641497"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19641497"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 3, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Hector Sandoval, Perumal Thiagarajan, Swapan K Dasgupta, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Essential role for Nix in autophagic maturation of erythroid cells."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Nature (2008)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1038/nature07006"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07006"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "18454133"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18454133"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 4, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Rachel L Schweers, Ji Zhang, Mindy S Randall, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "NIX is required for programmed mitochondrial clearance during reticulocyte maturation."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A (2007)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1073/pnas.0708818104"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0708818104"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "18048346"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18048346"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 5, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Narendra Wajapeyee, Ryan W Serra, Xiaochun Zhu, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Oncogenic BRAF induces senescence and apoptosis through pathways mediated by the secreted protein IGFBP7."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Cell (2008)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1016/j.cell.2007.12.032"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2007.12.032"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "18267069"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18267069"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 6, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Feng Gao, Dong Chen, Jianmin Si, et al. "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "The mitochondrial protein BNIP3L is the substrate of PARK2 and mediates mitophagy in PINK1/PARK2 pathway."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Hum Mol Genet (2015)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1093/hmg/ddv017"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddv017"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "25612572"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25612572"}]}, {"type": "r", "ref": 7, "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Brianada Koentjoro, Jin-Sung Park, Carolyn M Sue "}, {"type": "b", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Nix restores mitophagy and mitochondrial function to protect against PINK1/Parkin-related Parkinson's disease."}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " "}, {"type": "i", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "Sci Rep (2017)"}]}, {"type": "t", "text": " DOI: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "10.1038/srep44373"}], "href": "https://doi.org/10.1038/srep44373"}, {"type": "t", "text": " PMID: "}, {"type": "a", "children": [{"type": "t", "text": "28281653"}], "href": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28281653"}]}]}]}
Synonyms	BNIP3A, NIX
Proteins	BNI3L_HUMAN
NCBI Gene ID	665
API
Download Associations
Predicted Functions
Co-expressed Genes
Expression in Tissues and Cell Lines

Functional Associations

BNIP3L has 16,024 functional associations with biological entities spanning 8 categories (molecular profile, organism, chemical, functional term, phrase or reference, disease, phenotype or trait, structural feature, cell line, cell type or tissue, gene, protein or microRNA) extracted from 124 datasets.

Click the + buttons to view associations for BNIP3L from the datasets below.

If available, associations are ranked by standardized value

Harmonizome 3.0

BNIP3L Gene

Functional Associations

Please acknowledge the Harmonizome in your publications by citing the following reference(s):

	Dataset	Summary
	Allen Brain Atlas Adult Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	tissues with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other tissues from the Allen Brain Atlas Adult Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Adult Mouse Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	tissues with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other tissues from the Allen Brain Atlas Adult Mouse Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Aging Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury Tissue Sample Gene Expression Profiles	tissue samples with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other tissue samples from the Allen Brain Atlas Aging Dementia and Traumatic Brain Injury Tissue Sample Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by Microarray	tissue samples with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other tissue samples from the Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by Microarray dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by RNA-seq	tissue samples with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other tissue samples from the Allen Brain Atlas Developing Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles by RNA-seq dataset.
	Allen Brain Atlas Prenatal Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	tissues with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other tissues from the Allen Brain Atlas Prenatal Human Brain Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	BioGPS Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles	cell lines with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other cell lines from the BioGPS Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	BioGPS Human Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	cell types and tissues with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other cell types and tissues from the BioGPS Human Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	BioGPS Mouse Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles	cell types and tissues with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other cell types and tissues from the BioGPS Mouse Cell Type and Tissue Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	Carcinogenome Chemical Perturbation Carcinogenicity Signatures	small molecule perturbations changing expression of BNIP3L gene from the Carcinogenome Chemical Perturbation Carcinogenicity Signatures dataset.
	CCLE Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles	cell lines with high or low copy number of BNIP3L gene relative to other cell lines from the CCLE Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles dataset.
	CCLE Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles	cell lines with high or low expression of BNIP3L gene relative to other cell lines from the CCLE Cell Line Gene Expression Profiles dataset.
	CCLE Cell Line Proteomics	Cell lines associated with BNIP3L protein from the CCLE Cell Line Proteomics dataset.
	CellMarker Gene-Cell Type Associations	cell types associated with BNIP3L gene from the CellMarker Gene-Cell Type Associations dataset.
	ChEA Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles	transcription factor binding site profiles with transcription factor binding evidence at the promoter of BNIP3L gene from the CHEA Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles dataset.
	ChEA Transcription Factor Targets	transcription factors binding the promoter of BNIP3L gene in low- or high-throughput transcription factor functional studies from the CHEA Transcription Factor Targets dataset.
	ChEA Transcription Factor Targets 2022	transcription factors binding the promoter of BNIP3L gene in low- or high-throughput transcription factor functional studies from the CHEA Transcription Factor Targets 2022 dataset.
	CM4AI U2OS Cell Map Protein Localization Assemblies	assemblies containing BNIP3L protein from integrated AP-MS and IF data from the CM4AI U2OS Cell Map Protein Localization Assemblies dataset.
	CMAP Signatures of Differentially Expressed Genes for Small Molecules	small molecule perturbations changing expression of BNIP3L gene from the CMAP Signatures of Differentially Expressed Genes for Small Molecules dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores	cellular components containing BNIP3L protein from the COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025	cellular components containing BNIP3L protein from the COMPARTMENTS Curated Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025 dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Experimental Protein Localization Evidence Scores	cellular components containing BNIP3L protein in low- or high-throughput protein localization assays from the COMPARTMENTS Experimental Protein Localization Evidence Scores dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Experimental Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025	cellular components containing BNIP3L protein in low- or high-throughput protein localization assays from the COMPARTMENTS Experimental Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025 dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores	cellular components co-occuring with BNIP3L protein in abstracts of biomedical publications from the COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores dataset.
	COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025	cellular components co-occuring with BNIP3L protein in abstracts of biomedical publications from the COMPARTMENTS Text-mining Protein Localization Evidence Scores 2025 dataset.
	COSMIC Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles	cell lines with high or low copy number of BNIP3L gene relative to other cell lines from the COSMIC Cell Line Gene CNV Profiles dataset.
	COSMIC Cell Line Gene Mutation Profiles	cell lines with BNIP3L gene mutations from the COSMIC Cell Line Gene Mutation Profiles dataset.
	CTD Gene-Chemical Interactions	chemicals interacting with BNIP3L gene/protein from the curated CTD Gene-Chemical Interactions dataset.
	CTD Gene-Disease Associations	diseases associated with BNIP3L gene/protein from the curated CTD Gene-Disease Associations dataset.
	DepMap CRISPR Gene Dependency	cell lines with fitness changed by BNIP3L gene knockdown relative to other cell lines from the DepMap CRISPR Gene Dependency dataset.
	DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Association Evidence Scores	diseases co-occuring with BNIP3L gene in abstracts of biomedical publications from the DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Assocation Evidence Scores dataset.
	DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Association Evidence Scores 2025	diseases co-occuring with BNIP3L gene in abstracts of biomedical publications from the DISEASES Text-mining Gene-Disease Assocation Evidence Scores 2025 dataset.
	DisGeNET Gene-Disease Associations	diseases associated with BNIP3L gene in GWAS and other genetic association datasets from the DisGeNET Gene-Disease Associations dataset.
	DisGeNET Gene-Phenotype Associations	phenotypes associated with BNIP3L gene in GWAS and other genetic association datasets from the DisGeNET Gene-Phenoptype Associations dataset.
	ENCODE Histone Modification Site Profiles	histone modification site profiles with high histone modification abundance at BNIP3L gene from the ENCODE Histone Modification Site Profiles dataset.
	ENCODE Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles	transcription factor binding site profiles with transcription factor binding evidence at the promoter of BNIP3L gene from the ENCODE Transcription Factor Binding Site Profiles dataset.
	ENCODE Transcription Factor Targets	transcription factors binding the promoter of BNIP3L gene in ChIP-seq datasets from the ENCODE Transcription Factor Targets dataset.
	ESCAPE Omics Signatures of Genes and Proteins for Stem Cells	PubMedIDs of publications reporting gene signatures containing BNIP3L from the ESCAPE Omics Signatures of Genes and Proteins for Stem Cells dataset.
	GAD Gene-Disease Associations	diseases associated with BNIP3L gene in GWAS and other genetic association datasets from the GAD Gene-Disease Associations dataset.
	GAD High Level Gene-Disease Associations	diseases associated with BNIP3L gene in GWAS and other genetic association datasets from the GAD High Level Gene-Disease Associations dataset.