Epigenetic Control of NRF2-Directed Cellular Antioxidant Status in Dictating Life-Death Decisions

In this issue of Molecular Cell , Chen et al. (2017) demonstrate that the tumor suppressor protein ARF sensitizes cancer cells to programmed death through a surprising mechanism: ARF physically interacts with and antagonizes activation by acetylation of the master redox regulator NRF2, providing an unusual mode of posttranslational NRF2 regulation.