The regulation of an elicitor-inducible sesquiterpene cyclase in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cell suspension cultures was investigated. Sesquiterpene cyclase activity was absent from control cell cultures but induced to a maximum within 15 hours of cellulase addition to the cell cultures. The induction of the cyclase activity was correlated with an absolute amount of the cyclase protein as measured in immunoblots. Both the in vivo synthesis rate, measured as the incorporation of [(35)S]methionine by cell cultures into immunoprecipitable cyclase protein, and the cyclase mRNA translational activity, measured as the incorporation of [(35)S]methionine into immunoprecipitable cyclase protein synthesized by in vitro translation of isolated RNA, were maximal at that time when the increase in cyclase enzyme activity was maximal. Using thiouridine to selectively label and isolate de novo synthesized mRNA, the in vitro translation products encoded by the newly synthesized RNA from elicitor-treated, but not control, cell cultures contained immunoprecipitable cyclase protein. These results suggest that the induction of the sesquiterpene cyclase in elicitor-treated cell cultures is primarily regulated by transcriptional control of the cyclase gene.