Partial characterization of an endonuclease activity which appears in nuclease free T4 polynucleotide kinase.

A nuclease activity has been found to appear in preparations of T4 induced polynucleotide kinase which had originally been nuclease free. The nuclease introduced random nicks into T7 DNA suggesting that it was an endonuclease. Destabilization of the kinase molecule by osmotic shock or by the removal of reducing agents, ATP or salts was shown to stimulate the endonuclease appearance. The molecular weight was found to be 32,000 +/- 10% by gel filtration on G100 Sephadex. The nuclease was active over a wide pH range from pH 5.0 to pH 9.2 in a number of buffer systems and required MgCl2 and reducing agent for maximum activity. Sodium azide did not affect the nuclease appearance.