[A new reaction catalyzed by Bollum's terminal deoxyribonucleotidyltransferase]

The highly purified preparations of Bollum's terminal transferase from calf thymus were shown to catalyze, along with the common reaction of nucleotide addition to the 3'-terminus of an oligonucleotide primer, a "non-common" reaction between dNTP or rNTP on one hand, and various alcohols on the other hand. This reaction was carried out with ethylene glycol, glycerol, ethanol and methanol to produce substances containing one molecule of nucleotide, one molecule of alcohol and non-organic pyrophosphate. The reaction conditions are cacodylate buffer, pH 7, 2, in the presence of Mg2+ or Co2+ ions. The structure was determined for the product of the reaction between glycerol and dATP, which appeared to be 2,3-dihydroxypropyl-ether of 2'-deoxyadenosine-5'-monophosphate.