Deoxyribonucleic acid polymerases of Euglena gracilis. Purification and properties of two distinct deoxyribonucleic acid polymerases of high molecular weight.

Two DNA polymerases of high molecular weight, pol A (mol.wt. 190 000) and pol B (mol.wt. 240 ooo), have been purified 6300-fold and 1600-fold respectively from an extramitochondrial supernatant of a bleached strain of Euglena gracilis. They have very similar requirements when assayed with an 'activated'-DNA primer-template [the optimum conditions of pH and ionic (K+ and Mn2+) composition being 7.2, 25 mM and 0.2 mM respectively]. 0.2 mM-Mn2+ was about 1.5-2-fold as effective as 2 mM-Mg2+, owing to substrate activation by deoxyribonucleoside 5'-triphosphates in the presence of Mn2+. Km values for the triphosphates in the absence of activation were about 10(-6)M with Mn2+ and 8 X 10(-6) M with Mg2+ for both enzymes. They were inhibited to the same extent by N-ethylmaleimide, novobiocin and o-phenanthroline, but differed in their chromatographic behaviour on DEAE-cellulose and in their electrophoretic mobilities on polyacrylamide gel. No evidence was found for the existence in these cells of a DNA polymerase of low molecular weight, but there were indications that a third enzyme of high molecular weight might exist.