Partial purification and some properties of a nucleoside phosphotransferase of chick embryos.

A nucleoside phosphotransferase purified about 40fold from chick embryos utilizes efficiently as phosphate donors deoxyribonucleoside and pyrimidine ribonucleoside monophosphates, whereas the pyrimidine deoxyribonucleoside appear to be the preferred acceptors of phosphate. The enzyme is very unstable to heat, dilution and dialysis. A marked enhancement in the stability is caused by nucleotides and it seems associated with the formation of an aggregated state of the protein.