Incubation of spleen cells from mice having rejected a Moloney sarcoma virus (MSV)-induced tumor with syngeneic irradiated lymphoma or sarcoma cells bearing MSV-associated antigens in secondary mixed leukocyte-tumor cell cultures (MLTC) resulted in the generation of highly active cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) specifically directed against syngeneic target cells bearing MSV-associated antigens. When MSV-immune spleen cells from C57BL/6 (H-2b) and BALB/c(H-2d) mice were compared with respect to their ability to generate CTL in syngeneic secondary MLTC, it was found that both lymphoid cell populations were equally able to mount an anamnestic CTL response to MSV-associated antigens as assessed by a short-term 21Cr release assay. However, quantitative analysis of the activity of both CTL populations on either H-2b or H-2d tumor cells indicated that target cells sharing the same major histocompatibility complex (MHC) as the effector cells were lysed 10- to 100-fold more efficiently than allogeneic target cells. As suggested by the results of inhibition experiments using mixtures of 51Cr-labeled and unlabeled target cells, preferential lysis of syngeneic versus allogeneic tumor cells might be related to the establishment of effective adhesions between the former and CTL. Direct evidence for the role of MHC in determining the antigenic specificity of CTL directed against MSV-associated antigens was provided by results obtained using MSV-immune spleen cells from congenic resistant mice. Furthermore, studies of the response of F1 (H-2b/d) hybrid mice showed that stimulation of immune spleen cells with tumor cells from one parental strain or the other in secondary MLTC resulted in the generation of CTL capable of lysing tumor target cells of the same perental strain as the stimulating cells, but not of the other. The results thus suggested the presence of two sets of CTL precursor cells in F1 MSV-immune spleens, each set responding exclusively to tumor antigens associated with only one of the two parental phenotypes.