The N complementation group of adenovirus (Ad) serotype 5 mutants, which are temperature sensitive for viral DNA synthesis in vivo, has been used to study a 140,000-dalton DNA polymerase (Pol) that copurified with the 80,000-dalton terminal protein precursor (pTP). Extracts prepared from HeLa cells infected with the N group mutant H5ts149 at nonpermissive temperature were unable to synthesize viral DNA. The defect in these extracts was specifically reversed by addition of the Pol purified from wild-type Ad-infected cytosol. Addition of the pTP, free of the Pol, did not restore replicative activity to H5ts149 extracts. The reactions studied depend on the presence of the DNA template and include the initiation reaction (the covalent attachment of dCMP to the pTP) and the selective replication of Ad DNA restriction endonuclease fragments containing the origin sequences. Glycerol gradient sedimentation showed that a replicative activity representing the pTP-Pol complex was greatly reduced in H5ts149 extracts as compared with wild-type extracts, suggesting some alteration in the mutant. A pool of pTP free of Pol was detected on these gradients in extracts from both wild-type and H5ts149-infected cells. In addition, the initiation and elongation of Ad DNA catalyzed by H5ts149 extracts prepared from cells grown at permissive temperatures was more labile to urea inactivation than extracts prepared from cells infected with wild-type virus. These results, considered together with the mapping of the H5ts149 mutation within an open reading frame approximately large enough to code for the 140,000-dalton DNA polymerase [Gingeras, T. R., Sciaky, D., Gelinas, R. E., Bing-Dong, J., Yen, C. E., Kelly, M. M., Bullock, P. A., Parsons, B. L., O'Neill, K. E. & Roberts, R. J. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 13475-13491; Alestrom, P., Akusjarui, G., Pettersson, M. & Pettersson, U. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 13492-13498], suggest that the Pol is a virally encoded protein, as is the pTP.