We previously showed that in quiescent cells, p300/CBP (CREB-binding protein)family coactivators repress c-myc and prevent premature induction of DNA synthesis. p300/CBP-depleted cells exit G 1 early and continue to accumulate in S phase but do not progress into G 2 /M, and eventually they die of apoptosis. Here, we show that the S-phase arrest in these cells is because of an intra-S-phase block. The inappropriate DNA synthesis that occurs as a result of forced expression of c-myc leads to the activation of the DNA damage response as evidenced by the phosphorylation of several checkpoint related proteins and the formation of foci containing ␥-H2AX. The activation of checkpoint response is related to the induction of c-myc, as the phosphorylation of checkpoint proteins can be reversed when cells are treated with a c-Myc inhibitor or when Myc synthesis is blocked by short hairpin RNA. Using the DNA fiber assay, we show that in p300-depleted cells initiation of replication occurs from multiple replication origins. Chromatin loading of the Cdc45 protein also indicates increased origin activity in p300 knockdown cells. Immunofluorescence experiments indicate that c-Myc colocalizes with replication foci, consistent with the recently reported direct role of c-Myc in the initiation of DNA synthesis. Thus, the inappropriate S-phase entry of p300 downregulated cells is likely to be because of c-Myc-induced deregulated replication origin activity, which results in replicative stress, activation of a DNA damage response, and S-phase arrest. Our results point to an important role for p300 in maintaining genomic integrity by negatively regulating c-myc.In eukaryotic cells, initiation of DNA replication takes place from multiple replication origins on each chromosome, providing flexibility for the large eukaryotic DNA to replicate efficiently. However, control mechanisms exist to ensure that DNA replication occurs only once per cell, and when such mechanisms fail, checkpoint responses are activated to monitor the genome integrity and inhibit replication until DNA damage has been repaired (for review, see Ref. 1). In response to DNA damage, eukaryotic cells activate ATM 3 /Chk2 and ATR/Chk1 kinase pathways to arrest the cell cycle and allow time to repair DNA. Both ATM and ATR control cell cycle checkpoint signals by phosphorylating a number of checkpoint-related proteins including Chk1 and Chk2 and p53 (for review, see Refs. 2 and 3). p300 and CBP are two highly related and conserved nuclear phosphoproteins that function as transcriptional coactivators, and by interacting with a large number of sequence-specific transcription factors they integrate diverse signal transduction pathways in the nucleus. Because of their intrinsic histone acetyltransferase activity, they also acetylate nucleosomal histones and, thus, link chromatin remodeling with transcription (for review, see Ref. 4). Recent studies suggest that p300/CBP plays an important role in DNA replication and the activation of DNA damage response by interacting with seve...