Chromium (Cr) is a widespread environmental contaminant and a known human carcinogen. We have used shuttle vector systems in yeast, mammalian cells, and transgenic mice to characterize the mutational specificity and premutational DNA damage induced by Cr(VI) and its reduction intermediates in order to elucidate the mechanism by which Cr induces mutations. In the yeast system, treatment of vector-containing cells with Cr(VI) results in a dose-dependent increase in mutations in the SUP4-o target gene of the vector; mutagenesis is enhanced in an apn-1 yeast mutant, deficient in the capacity to repair oxidative-type DNA damage. In vector-containing mammalian cells, treatment with Cr(VI) also results in a dose-dependent increase in mutations in the vector target gene supF. The Cr-induced mutations in supF occurred mostly at G:C base pairs and were widely distributed across the gene, a pattern similar to those observed with ionizing radiation or hydrogen peroxide. These results support the hypothesis that Cr(VI)-induced oxidative-type DNA damage is responsible for Cr mutagenesis in the cell. Recently these studies were extended into the Big Blue transgenic mouse system in which Cr-induced mutagenesis was observed in the lung, the target organ for Cr carcinogenesis in humans. Analysis of the spectrum of these mutations will test whether Cr mutagenesis occurs by similar mechanisms in the intact animal as in cell culture systems and yeast.