Mitotic recombination is believed to play an important role in the development of many cancers. An improved system has been developed to detect reversion of an intragenic DNA duplication, as a model for intrachromosomal homologous recombination. The 'LNtd' strain of human fibroblasts, derived from a Lesch-Nyhan donor, produces no detectable hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) activity due to a 13.7-kilobase-pair DNA insertion duplicating exons 2 and 3 of the HPRT locus. These cells are therefore sensitive to selection in HAT medium, against cells lacking functional HPRT enzyme. Clonal reversion to HAT resistance occurs spontaneously at 1-3 x 10(-5)/cell/generation, and can be induced by brief exposure to a variety of carcinogenic agents. Six known carcinogens, including two (diethylstilbestrol and nickel chloride) which were non-mutagenic in Salmonella by Ames HIS-reversion tests, showed dose-dependent induction of LNtd reversion by a maximum of 2.4- to > 11-fold over controls (each p < 0.01). In contrast, 5 non-carcinogenic agents, including two 'Ames-positive' chemicals, sodium azide and 8-hydroxyquinoline, evoked no more than a 1.7-fold increase in reversion (not significant). The molecular events associated with reversion to HAT-resistance were characterized, relative to the parental strain, in HATR clones derived from either untreated or carcinogen-treated cells. Both the intron-3:intron-1 junction situated between the duplicated HPRT segments in LNtd cells (amplified by polymerase chain reaction), and a restriction fragment corresponding to the duplicated HPRT DNA (assessed by Southern-blot hybridization), were lost from the majority of HATR revertant clones, whether they arose spontaneously or following exposure to Cr(VI) or ultraviolet light. These results imply that HATR reversion is induced in LNtd cells by carcinogenic treatments, through a mechanism consistent with homologous recombination, and is highly concordant with induction of in vivo carcinogenesis by the same agents.