Early-passage skin fibroblasts from different inbred and congenic strains of mice were X-irradiated (1 Gy), and the number of chromatid breaks was determined at 2.0 h after irradiation. The cells from DBA/2N, C3H/HeN, STS/A, C57BL/6N, BALB/cJ, and AKR/N had 25 to 42 chromatid breaks per 100 metaphase cells (efficient repair phenotype). NZB/NJ had greater than 78 and BALB/cAn had 87 to 110 chromatid breaks per 100 cells (inefficient repair phenotype). Differences between BALB/cAn and BALB/c. DBA/2 congenic strains which carry less than 1% of the DBA/2 genome indicate that two genes, one on chromosome 1 linked to bcl-2-Pep-3 and the other on chromosome 4 closely linked to Fv-1, affect the efficiency with which the cells repair radiation-induced chromatin damage.