Pressure-jump chemical relaxation has been used to investigate the kinetics of ethidium bromide binding to the synthetic double-stranded polymers poly[d(G-C)] and poly[d(A-T)] in 0.1 M NaCl, 10 mM tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane hydrochloride, and 1 mM ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, pH 7.2, at 24 degrees C. The progress of the reaction was followed by monitoring the fluorescence of the intercalated ethidium at wavelengths greater than 610 nm upon excitation at 545 nm. The concentration of DNA was varied from 1 to 45 microM and the ethidium bromide concentration from 0.5 to 25 microM. The data for both polymers were consistent with a single-step bimolecular association of ethidium bromide with a DNA binding site. The necessity of a proper definition of the ethidium bromide binding site is discussed: it is shown that an account of the statistically excluded binding phenomenon must be included in any adequate representation of the kinetic data. For poly[d(A-T)], the bimolecular association rate constant is k1 = 17 X 10(6) M-1 s-1, and the dissociation rate constant is k-1 = 10 s-1; in the case of poly[d(G-C)], k1 = 13 X 10(6) M-1 s-1, and k-1 = 30 s-1. From the analysis of the kinetic amplitudes, the molar volume change, delta V0, of the intercalation was calculated. In the case of poly[d(A-T)], delta V0 = -15 mL/mol, and for poly[d(G-C)], delta V0 = -9 mL/mol; that is, for both polymers, intercalation is favored as the pressure is increased.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)