IAP gene deletion and conditional knockout models.

Gene deletion studies have helped reveal the unique and overlapping roles played by IAP proteins. Crossing IAP mutant mice has helped unravel the complex feed-back regulatory circuits in which cIAP1, cIAP2 and XIAP allow innate defensive responses to microbial pathogens, without the development of auto-inflammatory syndromes. Deletion of genes for Survivin and its homologs in yeasts, invertebrates and mammals has shown that it functions differently, as it is not a regulator of innate immunity or apoptosis, but acts together with INCENP, aurora kinase B and Borealin to allow chromosome segregation during mitosis.