Acrylamide (AA) is a germ cell mutagen and induces clastogenic effects predominantly in spermatids of mice. The mechanism of AA clastogenicity has been a matter of dispute. Since the reactivity of AA with DNA is low but is high with proteins containing SH groups, it was suggested that protamine alkylation could be the mechansim of clastogenicity by AA in spermatids. This was substantiated by the observation that the time course of protamine alkylation and dominant lethal effects in spermatids of mice induced by AA was strictly parallel. Another suggestion was that AA may be metabolized by cytochrome P-450 to the epoxide glycidamide (GA), which is then the ultimate DNA-reactive clastogen. This suggestion was based on the similarity of the stage specificity pattern for dominant lethality and heritable translocation induction by AA and GA. To test this latter assumption, 1-aminobenzotriazole (ABT), an inhibitor of P-450 metabolism, was used in the present experiments. Male mice were pretreated with ABT (3x50 mg/kg) on three consecutive days followed by AA treatment (125 mg/kg) on day 4. Parallel groups of animals were treated with AA (125 mg/kg), ABT (3x50 mg/kg) or with the solvent double-distilled water. The experiment was repeated once with slightly varied mating parameters. The results of both experiments showed that ABT inhibited or significantly reduced the AA-induced dominant lethal effects. Thus, the present data support the hypothesis that the AA metabolite GA is the ultimate clastogen in mouse spermatids.