AKR mice, 6-12 mo after birth, display a high incidence of spontaneous T cell lymphomas that can be prevented by thymus removal at the age of 1-3 mo. We report here the presence of dormant preleukemic cells among bone marrow cells of 8-12-mo-old AKR mice that have been thymectomized when 40-60 d old. Transplantation of bone marrow cells from these thymectomized AKR donors into syngeneic or hybrid (AKR X DBA/2)F1 intact or thymectomized recipients resulted in lymphoma development of AKR origin in 80-100% of the recipients. Analysis, by flow microfluorometry, of the antigenic cell surface phenotypes of the developing lymphomas revealed that all tumors were B cell lymphomas, since the cells stained with class-specific anti-IgM reagents and other reagents specific for B cells (RA3-2C2, RA3-6B2, anti-I-A, and anti-Fc receptor), and were Thy-1-. All these B cell tumors also expressed two T cell differentiation antigens, TL.4, found exclusively on T cell lymphomas, and Lyt-1 antigen, previously shown (11) to be expressed on some B cell neoplasms. The surface markers mu, I-A, RA3-2C2, and TL.4 identified by immunofluorescence, were shown to be integral membrane components synthesized by the tumor cells, rather than passively acquired proteins.