The drug resistance plasmid pKM101 plays a mojor role in the Ames Salmonella/microsome carcinogen detecting system by enhancing chemical mutagenesis. It is shown that in Escherichia coli K-12 the plasmid pKM101 enhances both spontaneous and methyl methanesulfonate-caused reversion of an ochre mutation, bacterial survival after ultraviolet irradiation, and reactivation of ultraviolet-irradiated lambda in unirradiated cells. All these effects are shown to be dependent on the recA+ lexA+ genotype but not on the recB+ recC+ or recF+ genotypes. The recA lexA-dependence of the plasmid-mediated repair and mutagenesis suggests an interaction with the cell's inducible error-prone repair system. The presence of pKM101 is shown to cause an additional increase in methyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis in a tif mutant beyond that caused by growth at 42 degrees. The presence of the plasmid raises the level of the Weigle-reactivation curve for the raactivation of ultraviolet-irradiated lambda in E. coli and causes a shif of the maximum to a higher UV fluence. These observations suggest that pKM101 does not exert its effects by altering the regulation of the cell's error-prone repair system but rather by supplying a mechanistic component or components.