The EB-1 cell line is a stable transfectant of EB, a p53 null colon carcinoma cell line, with an inducible promoter controlling expression of a wild type p53 cDNA. The induced p53 is transcriptionally active and gives rise to apoptosis in these cells. Using this cellular model for presence or absence of the transcription factor p53 and transactivated genes, the Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) technique permitted the isolation of 17 mRNA candidates (GIPs-Genes induced by p53), whose expression appears to be p53-dependent. Identity has been established for nine of the 17 isolated candidates. These are HGFL/MSP, Zap-70, APOBEC2, Ponsin/SH3P12/CAP/FLAF2, CDCrel2b/H5/Pnutl2, IgG, lats 2, cytokeratin 15 and PIG-3 (quinone oxidoreductase). The latter gene is the only GIP previously demonstrated to be p53 regulated. Of the eight remaining GIPs, six correspond to Unigene clusters. One candidate, GIP #1, is significantly homologous (72% identity) to a chicken zinc finger protein, CTCF, which binds to insulator elements and thus attenuates enhancer cross-talk between physically adjacent promoters. The p53-dependent expression of GIPs was confirmed by dependence of expression upon induction of wt p53 expression in the EB-1 cellular model and by up-regulation following activation of an endogenous wt p53 by treatment with adriamycin. Oncogene (2000) 19, 3