TP53 and neoplasm: Because C. elegans cep-1 is known to function in DNA damage-induced apoptosis in the germline [37-39] and the mammalian homolog p53 is a well-known tumor-suppressor [40,41], we tested the hypothesis that cep-1 limits the growth of these age-related uterine masses either through it's role in germline apoptosis or in transcriptional regulation of other genes.