Replicative senescence, an irreversible growth-arrested state attained by primary somatic cells after extensive passage in culture, reflects an important tumor suppressor mechanism in vivo and is a model for various aspects of cellular and organismal aging (10,13,16,76). Senescence is characterized by a constellation of features including irreversible growth arrest, elevated senescence-associated -galactosidase (SA-gal) activity, and increased autofluorescence, cell size, and cellular granularity. Although the p53 and retinoblastoma (Rb) tumor suppressor pathways appear to be important mediators of replicative senescence (37,77), it has been difficult to characterize the genetic and biochemical basis of replicative senescence because it is a heterogeneous process that occurs after months in cell culture. Senescence-like states can also be acutely induced by oxidative stress, introduction of an activated ras oncogene or tumor suppressor genes, or various other treatments (reviewed in reference 78). The rapid induction of senescence by these diverse stimuli implies that senescence is a genetically programmed cellular process analogous to cell cycle progression or apoptosis.We and others have described a model of induced senescence in cervical cancer cells (36,57,88). Cervical carcinogenesis is initiated by persistent infection of cervical keratinocytes with a high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV), such as HPV16 or HPV18. Cervical carcinoma cells continuously express the HPV E6 and E7 oncogenes, resulting in sustained inactivation of the p53 and Rb pathways, respectively (54, 58). Repression of the E6 and E7 genes in cervical carcinoma cell lines such as HeLa cells by expression of the bovine papillomavirus (BPV) E2 transcriptional repressor reactivates the endogenous p53 and Rb pathways and induces a robust senescence response that proceeds rapidly and synchronously and becomes irreversible by 5 days after E2 expression (20,24,36,41,42,45,57,88). Constitutive expression of the HPV16 E6 and E7 genes in HeLa cells can prevent BPV E2-induced senescence, demonstrating that HPV repression is required for this response (18,27,33,34,36,45,63,64,68). In contrast, high-level expression of HPV E2 proteins can result in cellular effects independently of E6/E7 repression (9,19,28,66,84).To initiate a genetic dissection of the pathways leading to senescence in response to HPV repression, we engineered HeLa cells to constitutively express an exogenous HPV16 E6 gene (18). Repression of the endogenous HPV18 E7 gene in these cells by E2 expression activates the Rb but not the p53 pathway, which remains dormant because of enforced expression of HPV16 E6. Nevertheless, E7 repression efficiently induces senescence in these cells, demonstrating that p53 induction is not required for senescence (18). Genetic studies strongly suggest that this induced senescence response requires activation of the Rb family (63,70,88). In addition, inactivation of the Rb pathway in primary keratinocytes is required to bypass replicative senescence (22,...