In vivo in mammalian cells, ultraviolet-induced unscheduled DNA synthesis was less sensitive to aphidicolin than was replicative DNA synthesis. Replicative DNA synthesis in HeLa, HEp-2, WI-38 VA-13 and CV-1 cells was inhibited more than 97% by aphidicolin at 10 micrograms/ml, whereas aphidicolin inhibition of DNA synthesis in ultraviolet-irradiated cells varied between 30% and 90% depending on cell types and assay conditions. Aphidicolin inhibition of unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) in HeLa cells increased gradually with increasing aphidicolin concentration and reached approximately 90% at 100 micrograms/ml aphidicolin. A significant fraction of UDS in ultraviolet-irradiated HEp-2 cells was resistant to aphidicolin even at 300 micrograms/ml. Considered along with related information reported previously, the present results suggest that both aphidicolin-sensitive and insensitive DNA polymerases, DNA polymerase alpha and a non-alpha DNA polymerase (possibly DNA polymerase beta), are involved in in situ UDS in these ultraviolet-irradiated cells. Comparison of staphylococcal nuclease sensitivity between DNAs repaired in the presence and in the absence of aphidicolin in HEp-2 cells suggested that the involvement of DNA polymerase alpha in UDS favored DNA synthesis in the intranucleosomal region.