p63: A New Link Between Senescence and Aging

Cellular senescence is a distinctive form of cell cycle arrest that has been suggested to modulatethe processes of tumor suppression and aging. Though a detailed understanding of the cellularmachinery regulating this process is emerging, a more thorough understanding of the key playerslinking senescence to organismal aging is needed. The recent discovery that loss of the p53-related protein p63 induces cellular senescence and causes features of accelerated aging providesfurther evidence that cellular senescence is intimately linked with organismal aging, andidentifies p63 as a key regulator of both of these processes.