The lymphoid cell line #1670 has been derived from the infiltrated spleen of a tumor-bearing marmoset monkey infected with Herpesvirus saimiri. The cells contain both types of H. saimiri DNA, unique light (L-) DNA (36% cytosine plus guanine) and repetitive heavy (H-) DNA (71% cytosine plus guanine), without producing infectious virus. Viral DNA was found to persist in these cells as nonintegrated circular DNA molecules. Closed circular superhelical viral DNA molecules were isolated by three subsequent centrifugation steps: (i) isopycnic centrifugation in CsCl, (ii) sedimentation through glycerol gradients, and (iii) equilibrium centrifugation in CsCl-ethidium bromide. The isolated circles had a molecular weight of 131.5 +/- 3.6 x 10(6). This is significantly higher than the molecular weight of linear DNA molecules isolated from purified H. saimiri virions (about 100 x 10(6)). Partial denaturation mapping of circular molecules from #1670 lymphoid cells showed uniform arrangement of H- and L-DNA sequences in all circles. All denatured molecules contained two L-DNA regions (molecular weights of 54.0 +/- 1.8 x 10(6) and 31.5 +/- 1.3 x 10(6)) and two H-DNA regions (molecular weight of 25.6 +/- 1.9 x 10(6) and 20.0 +/- 0.8 x 10(6)) of constant length. Maps of both L-regions suggested that the sequences of the shorter L-DNA region were a subset of those of the longer region. The sequences of both L-regions had the same orientation. Circular molecules from H. saimiri-transformed lymphoid cell line #1670 appeared to represent defective genomes, containing only 75% of the genetic information present in L-DNA of H. saimiri virions.