Activation of a temperature-sensitive formof p53 inmurine erythroleukaemia cells results in a rapid impairment of protein synthesis that precedes inhibitionof cell proliferation and loss of cell viability by several hours. The inhibition of translation is associated with specific cleavages of polypep-tide chain initiation factors eIF4GI and eIF4B, a pheno-menon previously observed in cells induced to undergo apoptosis in response to other stimuli.