Accumulating evidence indicates that TBP (TATA-binding protein)-like protein (TLP) contributes to the regulation of stress-mediated cell cycle checkpoint and apoptotic pathways, although its physiological target genes have remained elusive. In the present study, we have demonstrated that human TAp63 is one of the direct transcriptional target genes of TLP. Enforced expression of TLP results in the transcriptional induction of the endogenous TAp63, but not of the other p53 family members such as TAp73 and p53. Consistent with these results, small interference RNA-mediated knockdown led to a significant down-regulation of the endogenous TAp63. Luciferase reporter assay and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that the genomic region located at positions ؊487 to ؊29, where ؉1 represents the transcriptional initiation site of TAp63, is required for TLP-dependent transcriptional activation of TAp63 and also TLP is efficiently recruited onto this region. Additionally, cells treated with anti-cancer drug etoposide underwent apoptosis in association with the transcriptional enhancement of TAp63 in a p53-independent manner, and the knockdown of the endogenous TLP reduced etoposide-induced apoptosis through repression of TAp63 expression. Taken together, our present study identifies a TLP-TAp63 pathway that is further implicated in stress-induced apoptosis.Transcriptional regulation involves the functional integration of diverse factors and is a critical regulatory step for cellular events that include growth, differentiation, and death. These cellular activities often occur simultaneously due to the action of regulatory factors with broad targets. A representative example of such a factor is the tumor suppressor p53 and its family members, including p63 and p73, which contribute to tumor suppression, cell cycle checkpoint, DNA repair, and apoptosis (1). p63 acts as a pro-apoptotic transcription factor (2, 3) and, like p53 and p73, is expressed as multiple isoforms (4). They include the trans-activating (TA) 3 isoform of p63, termed TAp63, and an NH 2 -terminal activation domain-deficient isoform, ⌬Np63, that acts as a dominant negative factor over p53, TAp63, and TAp73 (2). p63 has been clearly implicated in a variety of developmental processes (5), whereas its anticipated role as a tumor suppressor is unclear, mainly because of its low frequency of the somatic mutations in human tumors (6, 7). However, a study focused on long term effects of p63 mutations in mice showed that mice bearing mutations in both p63 and p53 develop a more aggressive tumor, indicating the presence of a tumor suppressive activity of p63 (8). This is consistent with earlier studies indicating that p63 is required for p53-dependent apoptotic response (9) and that, in response to certain DNA damage insults, p63 activates an overlapping set of p53-target genes implicated in cell cycle arrest and apoptosis (10). Although extensive studies of p63 in human tumors have suggested that deregulated expression of TAp63 and ⌬Np63 contributes to tu...