Acts as a tumor suppressor in many tumor types; induces growth arrest or apoptosis depending on the physiological circumstances and cell type. Involved in cell cycle regulation as a trans-activator that acts to negatively regulate cell division by controlling a set of genes required for this process. One of the activated genes is an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases. Apoptosis induction ses to be mediated either by stimulation of BAX and FAS antigen expression, or by repression of Bcl-2 expression. In cooperation with mitochondrial PPIF is involved in activating oxidative stress-induced necrosis; the function is largely independent of transcription. Prevents CDK7 kinase activity when associated to CAK complex in response to DNA damage, thus stopping cell cycle progression . Induces the transcription of long intergenic non-coding RNA p21 (lincRNA-p21) and lincRNA-Mkln1. LincRNA-p21 participates in TP53-dependent transcriptional repression leading to apoptosis, but ses to have to effect on cell-cycle regulation. Regulates the circadian clock by repressing CLOCK-ARNTL,BMAL1-mediated transcriptional activation of PER2 .