Overexpression of c-fos increases recombination frequency in human osteosarcoma cells. We have shown previously that overexpression of c-Ha-ras, v-mos or c-fos increases the spontaneous level of chromosomal aberrations and gene mutations in NIH 3T3 cells, and that reduction of the Fos protein level inhibits aberration induction by c-Ha-ras and v-mos and also by irradiation with ultraviolet light (van den Berg et al., Mol. Carcinogenesis, 4, 460-466). In order to examine whether fos is also involved in DNA recombination, thymidine kinase (tk) deficient human osteosarcoma cells containing two versions of the herpes simplex virus tk gene inactivated by base insertion were either transiently or stably transfected with various fos expression plasmids. The frequency of tk+ revertants was significantly enhanced both upon transient transfection with RSV-promoter-fos gene constructs and by stimulation of Fos synthesis in stably transfected cells harbouring an inducible metallothionein promoter-fos construct. No such increases were observed in cells transfected with plasmids containing a truncated version of c-fos. The data indicate that c-fos is involved in generating various types of genetic changes including homologous recombination; a role of c-fos in genetic instability may contribute to its action in tumor promotion and progression.