Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), subgroup M2, is associated with a nonrandom chromosomal translocation, t(8;21)(q22,q22). The oncogene c-mos also has been localized to the q22 band on chromosome 8. There is also evidence that genes on chromosome 21 may be important in the development of leukemia. To determine whether the c-mos oncogene has been translocated in AML-M2 with this translocation and to isolate DNA sequences and genes from these two chromosomes that may be important in malignancy, we constructed somatic cell hybrids between a Chinese hamster ovary cell (CHO) mutant defective in glycine metabolism and myeloblasts with an 8;21 translocation from a patient with AML. We isolated the 21q+ chromosome of this translocation in a somatic cell hybrid and showed that the c-mos oncogene had not been translocated to chromosome 21, ruling out the possibility that translocation of c-mos to chromosome 21 is necessary for development of AML-M2. In addition, there was no detectable rearrangement of the c-mos locus within a 12.4-kilobase region surrounding the gene, indicating that rearrangement of the coding region of the gene itself or alteration of proximal 5' or 3' flanking sequences is not involved. We used this hybrid to determine whether specific DNA sequences and biochemical markers from chromosomes 8 and 21 had been translocated in this case.