Mature single-positive (SP) T lymphocytes enter a "resting" state in which they are proliferatively quiescent and relatively resistant to apoptosis. The molecular mechanisms regulating this quiescent phenotype were unknown, Here it was found that the expression of a Kruppel-like zinc finger transcription factor, lung Kruppel-like factor (LKLF), is developmentally induced during the maturation of SP quiescent T cells and rapidly extinguished after SP T cell activation, LKLF-deficient T cells produced by gene targeting had a spontaneously activated phenotype and died in the spleen and lymph nodes from Fas ligand-induced apoptosis. Thus, LKLF is required to program the quiescent state of SP T cells and to maintain their viability in the peripheral lymphoid organs and blood.