We have found that: (1) melanoma cells are well protected from cell death during early period of adaptation to serum-containing medium; (2) MCL-1 and BCL-XL are implicated in adaptive response to new growth conditions; (3) increased MCL-1 mRNA and protein levels in response to serum result from transiently enhanced stability of MCL-1 transcript; (4) immediate response involves alterations in essential melanoma-related signal transducers MITF and ERK1/2; (5) the response to serum differs between populations with distinct morphology and baseline expression of pro-survival genes. Here, BCL2L1 is linked to melanoma.