Department of Medicine, School of Medicine University of California, San Diego La Jolla, California 92093 USA
Abstract:
DNA polymerases from avian, feline, murine and simian RNA tumor viruses exhibit substantial differences in optimal assay conditions and vary widely in their template-primer preferences. Avian DNA polymerase utilizes both natural and synthetic template-primers efficiently in the presence of Mg++ as well as Mn++. By contrast, the mammalian viral DNA polymerases are much more responsive to poly(A)·oligo(dT) than to other template-primers, and exhibit up to 20-fold greater activity with Mn++ than with Mg++. In addition, simian sarcoma virus DNA polymerase shows no detectable response to poly(C)·oligo(dG) over a wide variety of conditions stimulatory to the other viral enzymes.