Death-associated protein kinase (DAP-kinase) is a Ca ؉2 ͞calmodulin-regulated serine͞threonine kinase with a multidomain structure that participates in apoptosis induced by a variety of signals. To identify regions in this protein that are critical for its proapoptotic activity, we performed a genetic screen on the basis of functional selection of short DAP-kinase-derived fragments that could protect cells from apoptosis by acting in a dominant-negative manner. We expressed a library of randomly fragmented DAP-kinase cDNA in HeLa cells and treated these cells with IFN-␥ to induce apoptosis. Functional cDNA fragments were recovered from cells that survived the selection, and those in the sense orientation were examined further in a secondary screen for their ability to protect cells from DAP-kinase-dependent tumor necrosis factor-␣-induced apoptosis. We isolated four biologically active peptides that mapped to the ankyrin repeats, the ''linker'' region, the death domain, and the C-terminal tail of DAP-kinase. Molecular modeling of the complete death domain provided a structural basis for the function of the death-domain-derived fragment by suggesting that the protective fragment constitutes a distinct substructure. The last fragment, spanning the C-terminal serine-rich tail, defined a new regulatory region. Ectopic expression of the tail peptide (17 amino acids) inhibited the function of DAP-kinase, whereas removal of this region from the complete protein caused enhancement of the killing activity, indicating that the C-terminal tail normally plays a negative regulatory role. Altogether, this unbiased screen highlighted functionally important regions in the protein and revealed an additional level of regulation of DAP-kinase apoptotic function that does not affect the catalytic activity. D eath-associated protein kinase (DAP-kinase) is a positive mediator of apoptosis. It was isolated by a function-based gene-cloning methodology named technical knockout (TKO) selection, which involved expression of an anti-sense cDNA library in cells, followed by selection of clones that survived in the continuous presence of an apoptotic stimulus (1). In this system, specific inhibition of DAP-kinase protein expression by anti-sense mRNA protected HeLa cells from apoptosis induced by IFN-␥ (2). Furthermore, DAP-kinase was shown to modulate cell death triggered by Fas, tumor necrosis factor ␣ (TNF-␣) (3), and detachment from extracellular matrix (4), indicating its general relevance to apoptosis.DAP-kinase is a Ca ϩ2 ͞calmodulin (CaM)-regulated serine͞ threonine kinase that is localized to the cytoskeleton, where it associates with the actin microfilament system (5). In addition to the kinase domain, which is essential for the death-promoting effects, the protein carries eight ankyrin repeats, a cytoskeleton-binding region, and a death domain. The multidomain structure of DAPkinase and its participation in a wide range of apoptotic systems imply that this protein may interact with various intracellular components to exert its act...