Immediate early genes involved in controlling cell proliferation are rapidly and transiently induced following stimulation of susceptible cells with serum. To study how oncoproteins regulate immediate early genes, we examined serum inducibility of these genes in cells transformed by various oncoproteins. We found that induction of the immediate early gene, c-fos, by serum stimulation was markedly attenuated in four independent cell lines stably transformed by the v-Src tyrosine kinase. Cells chronically transformed by other oncoproteins implicated in tyrosine kinase signaling pathways, including v-Sis, v-Ras, and v-Raf, showed the same pattern of attenuation. In contrast, serum inducibility of c-fos was not attenuated in cells transformed by simian virus 40, which is thought to transform cells through a different pathway. Cell cycle analyses showed that proliferation of these transformed cell lines could be arrested effectively in 0.1% serum, demonstrating that the attenuation was not simply due to continuous cycling of transformed cells after serum deprivation. Moreover, serum inducibility of other immediate early genes, including c-jun, junB, egr-1, and NGFI-B, also was strikingly attenuated by these same oncoproteins. Nuclear run-on transcription assays established that this attenuation of serum inducibility occurred at the transcriptional level. Finally, flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that serum-starved v-Src-transformed cells were viable and able to progress into S phase of the cell cycle after serum stimulation, even though the induction of immediate early genes was greatly attenuated in these cells. Our results suggest that activation of immediate early genes is repressed by chronic stimulation of tyrosine kinase signaling pathways in transformed cells.