The efficiency of the chemical pathway of DNA repair is studied by time-resolved chemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (CIDNP) using the model system containing guanosyl base radicals, and tryptophan as the electron donor. Radicals were generated photochemically by pulsed laser irradiation of a solution containing the photosensitizer 2,2'-dipyridyl, guanosine-5'-monophosphate, and N-acetyl tryptophan. Depending on the pH of the aqueous solution, four protonation states of the guanosyl radical are formed via electron or hydrogen atom transfer to the triplet excited dye. The rate constants of electron transfer from the amino acid to the guanosyl radical were determined by quantitative analysis of the CIDNP kinetics, which is very sensitive to the efficiency of radical reactions in the bulk, and rate constants vary from (1.0 +/- 0.3) x 10(9) M-1 s(-1) for the cation and dication radicals of the nucleotide to (1.2 +/- 0.3) x 10(7) M-1 s(-1) for the radical in its anionic form. They were found to be higher than the corresponding values for electron transfer in the case of N-acetyl tyrosine as the reducing agent.