The high error rate characteristic of DNA polymerases from RNA tumor viruses has permitted measurements on the simultaneous incorporation of complementary and noncomplementary nucleotides during DNA synthesis. For example, avian myeloblastosis virus DNA polymerase incorporates 1 molecule of dCMP for approximately 500 molecules of dTMP polymerized using polyriboadenylic acid as a template. The parallel incorporation of complementary and noncomplementary nucleotides afer gel filtration of avian myeloblastosis virus DNA polymerase indicates that the observed fidelity is catalyzed by the polymerase itself. Nearest neighbor analysis of the product indicates that noncomplementary nucleotides are incorporated as single base substitutions. The incorporation of the noncomplementary dCMP is not reduced by a 20-fold greater amount of the complementary nucleotide, dTTP. Conversely, the concentration of the noncomplementary nucleotides does not effect the rate of incorporation of the complementary nucleotide. A similar lack of competition between complementary dGTP and noncomplementary dATP is exhibited using poly(rC)-oligo(dG) as a template-primer. Furthermore, there was no detectable competition between the different noncomplementary nucleotides. Possible explanations for this lack of competition are considered.