CC-1065 is the most potent antitumor agent tested in our laboratory. It is lethal to B16 and CHO cells and to a variety of human tumors in the clonogenic assay at 1 ng/ml and is effective against L1210 leukemia and B16 melanoma in vivo at 1 to 50 micrograms/kg. CC-1065 inhibits DNA synthesis and binds to DNA in a nonintercalative manner in the minor groove. We report here the kinetics of inhibition of DNA synthesis and of cell progression and the phase-specific toxicity of the drug. To determine phase-specific toxicity, we started synchronous CHO cultures from mitotic cells harvested after Colcemid pretreatment. These cultures showed that mitotic cells were the most sensitive, and sensitivity decreased as the cells progressed through G1 to S and G2. Experiments with B16 and CHO mitotic cells harvested without Colcemid pretreatment also showed that mitotic cells were more sensitive than G1/S-phase cells. Cell progression studies showed that CC-1065 did not affect progression from mitosis to G1 or from G1 to S. Cells progressed slowly through S at low levels (1 ng/ml) of the drug but were blocked in S at 5 ng/ml. Cell progression from G2 to M was blocked by CC-1065. DNA synthesis in B16 cells was measured at different times after 2-hr exposure to CC-1065. The percentage of inhibition of DNA synthesis was minimum at 4 hr and maximum at 19 hr after drug exposure. Since B16 cell progression studies showed a marked change in percentage of S-phase cells during this time, the DNA synthesis rate was recalculated as cpm/S-phase cell. After this correction (i.e., expressing DNA synthesis as cpm/S-phase cell), the percentage of inhibition of DNA synthesis was minimum at 0 hr and gradually increased to maximum inhibition at 19 hr without the decrease seen previously at 4 hr.