The antitumor drugs camptothecin and an anilinoacridine, 4'-(9-acridinylamino)-methanesulfon-m-anisidide (mAMSA), which act on DNA topoisomerase I and II, respectively, are shown to inhibit the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants selected for their permeability to other inhibitors. In addition to growth inhibition, these drugs induce high levels of homologous recombination and induce the expression of a DNA damage-inducible gene DIN3. Cytotoxicity of the drugs is more pronounced in strains that also carry a rad52 mutation. An analog of mAMSA), which is ineffective as an inhibitor of DNA topoisomerase II in mammalian cells, is also ineffective in eliciting physiological responses in these yeast strains. The physiological effects of camptothecin, but not those of mAMSA, disappear if the TOP1 gene encoding DNA topoisomerase I is disrupted. This shows that DNA topoisomerase I is the sole target of camptothecin cytotoxicity and illustrates that a nonessential enzyme can nevertheless be the target for a cytotoxic drug.