Six oligonucleotides with carcinogen derivatives bound at the N2 atom of deoxyguanosine were prepared, including adducts derived from butadiene, acrolein, crotonaldehyde, and styrene, and examined for effects on the replicative enzymes bacteriophage DNA polymerase T7- (T7-) and HIV-1 reverse transcriptase for comparison with previous work on smaller DNA adducts. All of these adducts strongly blocked dCTP incorporation opposite the adducts. dATP was preferentially incorporated opposite the acrolein and crotonaldehyde adducts, and dTTP incorporation was preferred at the butadiene- and styrene-derived adducts. Steady-state kinetic analysis indicated that the reduced catalytic efficiency with adducted DNA involved both an increased Km and attenuated kcat. Fluorescence estimates of Kd and pre-steady-state kinetic measurements of koff showed no significantly decreased affinity of T7- with the adducted oligonucleotides or the dNTP. Pre-steady-state kinetics showed no burst phase kinetics for dNTP incorporation with any of the modified oligonucleotides. These results indicate that phosphodiester bond formation or a conformational change of the enzyme.DNA complex is rate-limiting instead of the step involving release of the oligonucleotide. Thio elemental effects for dNTP incorporation were generally relatively small but variable, indicating that the presence of adducts may sometimes make phosphodiester bond formation rate-limiting but not always.