Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase (TDP) cleaves the phosphodiester bond linking the active site tyrosine residue of topoisomerase I with the 3¢ terminus of DNA in topoisomerase I–DNA complexes which accumulate during treatment of cancer with camptothecin. In yeast, TDP mutation confers a 1000-fold hypersensitivity to camptothecin in the presence of an additional mutation of RAD9 gene [Pouliot, ., Yao, ., Robertson, . & Nash, . (1999) Science 286, 552–555].