To assess the functional role of RNA polymerase II in the regulation of transcription during muscle differentiation, we isolated and characterized a large number of independent cx-amanitin-resistant (AmaR) mutants of L6 rat myoblasts that express both wild-type and altered RNA polymerase II activities. We also examined their myogenic (Myo) phenotype by determining their ability to develop into mature myotubes, to express elevated levels of muscle creatine kinase, and to synthesize muscle-characteristic proteins as detected by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. We found a two-to threefold increase in the frequency of clones with a myogenic-defective phenotype in the AmaR (RNA polymerase II) mutants as compared to control ethyl methane sulfonate-induced, 6-thioguanine-resistant (hypoxanthine, guanine phosphoribosyl transferase) mutants or to unselected survivors also exposed to ethyl methane sulfonate. Subsequent analysis showed that about half of these myogenic-defective AmaR mutants had a conditional Myo(ama) phenotype; when cultured in the presence of amanitin, they exhibited a Myo-phenotype; in its absence they exhibited a Myo+ phenotype. This conditional Myo(ama) phenotype is presumably caused by the inactivation by amanitin of the wild-type amanitin-sensitive RNA polymerase II activity and the subsequent rise in the level of mutant amanitin-resistant RNA polymerase II activity. In these Myo(ama) mutants, the wild-type RNA polymerase II is normally dominant with respect to the Myo+ phenotype, whereas the mutant RNA polymerase II is recessive and results in a Myo-phenotype only when the wild-type enzyme is inactivated. These findings suggest that certain mutations in the amaR structural gene for the amanitin-binding subunit of RNA polymerase II can selectively impair the transcription of genes specific for myogenic differentiation but not those specific for myoblast proliferation.The L6 rat myoblast cell line isolated by Yaffe (45) forms multinucleate myotubes and synthesizes elevated levels of several muscle-characteristic proteins when grown to confluence in physiological levels of calcium (10,19,30,31,(35)(36)(37)43