Incorporation of uracil into the growing strand of adenovirus 12 DNA.

The amount of rapidly labeled short DNA chains in adenovirus 12(Ad12)-infected cells was markedly increased in the presence of either uridine or deoxycytidine which could be converted to dUTP. When the infected cells were labeled with ³H]uridine or ³H] deoxycytidine and the labeled nucleotides in the short DNA chains from the Hirt supernatant were analysed by thin-layer chromatography, approximately 90 or 20% of the label was detected in dUTP. These results suggest that at least a portion of short DNA chains formed during Ad12 DNA replication is derived from an excision-repair mechanism of uracil containing nascent strands.