DNA adducts formed by aromatic amines such as N-acetyl-2-aminofluorene (AAF) and N-2-aminofluorene (AF) are known to cause mutations by interfering with the process of DNA replication. To understand this phenomenon better, a gel retardation assay was used to measure the equilibrium dissociation constants for the binding of an exonuclease-deficient Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I (Klenow fragment) to DNA primertemplates modified with an AAF or AF adduct. The results indicate that the nature of the adduct as well as the presence and nature of an added dNTP have a significant influence on the strength of the binding of the polymerase to the DNA. More specifically, it was found that the binding is 5-10-fold stronger when an AAF adduct, but not an AF adduct, is positioned in the enzyme active site. In addition, the polymerase was found to bind the unmodified primer-template less strongly in the presence of a noncomplementary dNTP than in the presence of the correct nucleotide. The same trend holds true for the primer-template having an AF adduct, although the magnitude of this difference was lower. In the case of the AAF adduct, the interaction of the polymerase with the primer-template was stronger and almost independent of the nucleotide present.It is well established that the presence of DNA adducts in the template strand can impede or block DNA synthesis at a replication fork. Although most bulky adducts inhibit DNA synthesis strongly, some can be bypassed readily in vitro. The well studied carcinogen N-acetyl-2-aminofluorene (AAF) 1 can form both types of adducts in DNA; N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-2-acetylaminofluorene adducts (dG-C8-AAF) are known to be strong blocks to DNA synthesis, whereas N-(deoxyguanosin-8-yl)-2-aminofluorene adducts (dG-C8-AF) can be bypassed by all polymerases tested (1). The mutagenic consequences of each adduct are also quite distinct. The dG-C8-AAF adduct results in mostly frameshift mutations in bacteria, whereas the dG-C8-AF adduct produces predominantly base substitution mutations (2-4). These different properties are likely to be the result of differences in the structures that these adducts assume in DNA in the active site of the DNA polymerase. Structural and enzymatic studies on duplex DNA molecules have demonstrated that the AF adduct produces less distortion in the DNA helix than the AAF adduct (2, 5). Multidimensional NMR experiments show that the guanine bearing the C8-AAF adduct rotates from anti to syn conformation in the doublestranded DNA helix with the fluorene ring inserted into the helix (base displacement model (6)). This contrasts with the AF adduct, which can adopt interchangeable conformations: in one the fluorene remains outside the helix (outside binding model), whereas the other has the fluorene ring stacked within the helix (5). The ratio of these conformations seems to be dependent on the sequence within which the adduct lies (7). Although it has been assumed that the structural differences between the AAF and AF adducts are responsible for the observed in the...