The adenovirus E1B protein is a viral homolog of the Bcl-2 family of proteins that are involved in regulating cell death. A family of interacting proteins, which are designated Nip or Bnip and include BNIP-1, BNIP-2, BNIP-3 and Nix, associate with both the E1B protein and Bcl-2 proteins to mediate apoptotic signaling. BNIP-1 contains a hydrophobic transmembrane domain, which enables its localization to the nuclear envelope, endoplasmic recticulum and mitochondria. BNIP-2, (previously design