Roles for p53 in growth arrest and apoptosis: putting on the brakes after genotoxic stress

The tumor suppressor gene p53 plays a major role in regulation of the mamma lian cellular stress response, in part through the transcriptional activati on of genes involved in cell cycle control, DNA repair, and apoptosis. Many factors contribute to control of the activation of p53, and the downstream response to its activation may also vary depending on the cellular environ ment or other modifying factors in the cell. The complexity of the p53 resp onse makes this an ideal system for application of newly emerging rapid thr oughput analysis techniques and informatics analysis.