Recent studies of recombinant EBV containing deletions of the genes encoding both the antiapoptotic vbcl-2, BHRF1 [47], and a second EBV bcl-2, BALF1 [48, 70, 71], have revealed that deletion of both EBV bcl-2 homologs dramatically increases the survival of cells undergoing EBV infection [72]. Here, BCL2 is linked to Epstein-Barr virus infection.