Review Volume 2, Issue 12 pp 900—907
The DNA damage response: Balancing the scale between cancer and ageing
Figure 3. The role of p53 in senescence. The determination of cell fate following p21-induced cell cycle arrest is dependent on the activity of p53 towards mTOR. Under conditions where p53 can inhibit mTOR via the transcriptional activation of specific target genes, cells will enter quiescence. However, when p53 cannot inhibit mTOR, cells will become senescent. The transcriptional activity of p53, and so its activity towards mTOR, can also be regulated by post-translational modifications such as acetylation, which is linked to the activity of the DDR.