The objective of our work has been, for many year, to elucidate on a molecular level at atomic resolution the structures of DNAs modified by highly mutagenic polycyclic aromatic amines and hydrocarbons, and their less mutagenic chemically related analogs and unmodified DNAs, as controls. The ultimate purpose of this undertaking is to obtain an understanding of the relationship DNA structures and mutagenicity. Our methods for elucidating structures are computational, but we keep in close contact with experimental developments, and have, very recently, been able to incorporate the first experimental information from NMR studies by other workers in our calculations. The specific computational methods we employ are minimized potential energy calculations using the torsion angle space program DUPLEX, developed and written by Dr. Brain Hingerty to yield static views. Molecular dynamics simulations of the important static structures with full solvation and salt are carried out with the program AMBER; this yields mobile views in a milieu that best mimics the natural environment of the cell. In addition, we have been developing new strategies for searching conformation space and building DNA duplexes from favored subunit structures. 30 refs., 12 figs.