Deoxycytidylate and deoxyguanylate kinase activity in pneumococci after exposure to known polyribonucleotides.

Polycytidylic acid and to a lesser extent polyadenylic acid enhance the activity of deoxycytidylate and deoxyguanylate kinases in resting cell suspensions of encapsulated pneumococci. The active intracellular materials appear to be oligomers of A and C, respectively. The stimulation of the kinase activities is amino-acid dependent and can be abolished by the addition of chloramphenicol. The addition of all eight naturally occurring deoxyribonucleosides and deoxyribonucleotides to cell suspensions containing the homopolymers leads to a selective enhancement of DNA synthesis.