The rad alleles of 18 unlinked genes of S. pombe were tested for their level of spontaneous meiotic, spontaneous mitotic and UV-induced mitotic recombination in the ade7-50 x ade7-152 interval. The effects of these rad alleles on meiosis and cell morphology were also studied. None of these mutants showed a clear-cut reduction of spontaneous recombination rates, no matter whether they had lost or retained a caffeine-sensitive repair of UV-induced lesions, which has previously been interpreted as a recombinational pathway of DNA repair (Fabre, 1972a; Gentner, 1977; Gentner et al., 1978). rad1-1 was the only mutant with a reduced frequency of UV-induced recombination. Some mutants displayed an increased frequency of mitotic recombination, either spontaneously (rad 15-P, rad 21-45), UV-induced (rad8-190) or both (rad2-44). Previous hypothesis on the contribution of recombination to DNA repair in S. pombe are reconsidered in the light of these data.