Using acetylation mimetics, Wang et al., (2010) demonstrated that survivin acetylation at K129 influences its subcellular localization in interphase cells.6 More recently the same group has suggested that monitoring the localization of acetylated survivin has diagnostic potential in breast cancer subtyping.26,27 Using a similar mutagenic strategy to them, we investigated whether this PTM impacts on survivin function during mitotic exit. This evidence concerns the gene BIRC5 and breast carcinoma.