On TNF binding, receptor-interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1) is recruited to the cytoplasmic domain of TNFR1, at which it becomes ubiquitylated and serves as a platform for recruitment and activation of NEMO/IKK1/IKK2 and TAK1/TAB2. RIPK1 is commonly thought to be required for the activation of canonical NF-jB and for inhibition TNFR1-induced apoptosis. RIPK1 has, however, also been reported to be essential for TNFR1-induced apoptosis when cIAPs are depleted. To determine the role of RIPK1 in TNF/IAP antagonist-induced death, we compared wild type (WT) and RIPK1 À/À mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) treated with these compounds. On being treated with TNF plus IAP antagonist, RIPK1 À/À MEFs survived, unlike WT MEFs, demonstrating a killing activity of RIPK1. Surprisingly, however, on being treated with TNF alone, RIPK1 À/À MEFs activated canonical NF-jB and did not die. Furthermore, several cell types from E18 RIPK1 À/À embryos seem to activate NF-jB in response to TNF. These data indicate that models proposing that RIPK1 is essential for TNFR1 to activate canonical NF-jB are incorrect. Signalling from TNFR1 in response to TNF results in the recruitment and assembly of a membrane-associated complex (complex I), which contains TRADD, RIPK1, TRAF2, cIAP1 and cIAP2. All of these components are thought to be required for the activation of NF-kB in response to TNF. 1 TNFR1 bears a cytoplasmic death domain (DD) and can also transmit apoptotic signals indirectly via TRADD. 2 However, most cells do not die when exposed to TNF, but only succumb when NF-kB signalling is blocked, for example, by deletion of p65 NF-kB (RelA), over-expression of a mutant IkBa, or treatment with the translation inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX). [3][4][5] An essential role for RIPK1 in TNF-induced NF-kB activation has been inferred from overexpression, knockdown and knockout (KO) studies. For example, overexpression of RIPK1-induced NF-kB activation, 6,7 a RIPK1 mutant Jurkat T cell line was deficient in NF-kB activation, 7,8 and extracts from v-ABL-transformed RIPK1 À/À B cells showed no binding to NF-kB probes in electrophoretic mobility shift assays. 4 It is believed that on TNFR1 ligation, RIPK1 is K63 ubiquitylated by TRAF2, 9 which provides a platform for NEMO (IKKg) to bind and allows TAB2/TAB3/TAK1 recruitment. TAK1 becomes ubiquitylated, and subsequently activates IKK2 in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. IKK2 in turn phosphorylates IkBa, which is K48 ubiquitylated and degraded. Degradation of IkBa allows cytoplasmic NF-kB dimers to translocate to the nucleus and transactivate pro-survival proteins such as cFLIP L. 10,11 In this model, by activating NF-kB, RIPK1 shows a pro-survival function.However, it has recently been shown that when cells are treated with an IAP antagonist in addition to TNF, reducing RIPK1 levels using shRNA prevents them from dying. 12 Therefore, in this case RIPK1 seems to have a pro-apoptotic function. To determine the effect of the complete absence of RIPK1 in TNFR1 cell death pathways, we generated mouse em...