The Escherichia coli Rep protein is a DNA helicase that functions as a homodimer to catalyze the unwinding of duplex DNA during DNA replication in a reaction that is coupled to the binding and hydrolysis of ATP. As a first step toward a molecular understanding of the interactions of Rep with adenine nucleotides, we have investigated the kinetic mechanism of adenine nucleotide binding to the Rep monomer, which is the state of the protein in the absence of DNA. Although ATP binding to Rep does not significantly change the intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence, the binding of the fluorescent nucleotide analogue, 2'(3')-O-(N-methylanthraniloyl)-ATP (mantATP) is associated with a large increase in mant nucleotide fluorescence intensity [lambda ex = 290 nm, lambda em > 420 nm; Moore, K. J. M., & Lohman, T. M. (1994) Biochemistry (preceding article in this issue)]. We have used the fluorescence signal from mantATP binding to monitor the kinetics of nonfluorescent nucleotide binding to Rep by a kinetic competition approach. The simultaneous and parallel binding of a mixture of mantATP and ATP to the Rep monomer is associated with a complex triphasic fluorescence transient during the approach to equilibrium. Global analysis of the fluorescence transients over a range of [ATP] by numerical integration techniques was used to define the kinetic mechanism of ATP binding and to determine the elementary rate constants. Using this approach, the kinetic rate constants for ADP, ATP gamma S, AMPPNP, AMP, adenosine, and inorganic phosphate were also determined at 4 degrees C in 20 mM Tris.HCl (pH 7.5), 6 mM NaCl, 10% (v/v) glycerol, and 5 mM MgCl2. The kinetics of adenine nucleotide binding to the Rep monomer are similar to those observed with the mant nucleotides under identical experimental conditions (Moore & Lohman, 1994). The kinetic competition data are consistent with the following two-step mechanism for the binding of ATP, ADP, and ATP gamma S, where P is the Rep monomer and A is the adenine nucleotide: P+A [formula: see text] P-A [formula: see text] (P-A). In the presence of 5 mM MgCl2, the values of K+1 (approximately 10(7) M-1 s-1) and k+2 (approximately 10 s-1) are comparable for each nucleotide, whereas k+2 > k-1 for ATP and ATP gamma S while for ADP k+2 << k-1; hence, differences in the overall equilibrium binding affinities of these nucleotides are primarily due to changes in k-1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)