The validity of mouse liver tumors is controversial in the risk assessment of carcinogenicity of chemicals in humans, because mice used in carcinogenicity bioassays are genetically predisposed to liver tumors. The argument could be resolved once liver tumor susceptibility genes have been cloned and their role in liver tumor development elucidated. We performed a genetic linkage analysis to map murine liver tumor susceptibility genes, as a first step toward their identification. An F2 population of 87 urethane-treated male A/J x C3H/He mice was scored with 83 genetic markers. Three regions, localized on chromosomes 7, 8, and 12, were found to contain putative liver tumor susceptibility genes.