Synthetic polypeptides were employed as substrates in kinetic analyses of the reaction mechanism for the catalytic subunit of a cyclic AMP-dependent protein kinase (ATP:protein phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.37) from calf thymus. This enzyme preparation was shown to catalyze the transfer of phosphate from ATP to histone H1 from calf thymus, as well as to two synthetic polypeptides, Arg-Lys-Ala-Ser-Gly-Pro (H1-6) and Arg-Arg-Lys-Ala-Ser-Gly-Pro (H1-7), corresponding to the amino acid sequence about serine-38 in calf H1. A related, basic heptapeptide corresponding to a sequence from pig liver pyruvate kinase, Leu-Arg-Arg-Ala-Ser-Leu-Gly (K), was also a substrate. The stoichiometry of peptide phosphorylation was established in each case as the transfer of 1 mol of phosphate from the gamma position of MgATP to the serine hydroxyl of 1 mol of the peptide. Steady-state, initial-velocity, kinetic parameters were determined for each substrate, using various concentrations of ATP. Under the conditions used, all synthetic peptides reacted with greater maximum velocities than whole histone H1. Nevertheless, the K(m) for H1, 54 muM, was lower than the K(m) values of the synthetic substrates. The most efficient substrate was peptide K, which had a V(max) of 50.6 mumol/min per mg of kinase and a K(m) of 63 muM. In the absence of peptide substrate no ATPase activity was detectable at a sensitivity of 0.05% of the rate of peptide phosphorylation, suggesting that ATP is not cleaved to form an unstable phosphoenzyme complex. The data are consistent with a sequential reaction mechanism involving a ternary complex between enzyme, polypeptide substrate, and ATP.