ABSTRACT
Two alkaline DNases of tentacles of actinia Radianthus macrodactylus, referred to as alk DNase I and alk DNase II, respectively, have been purified up to apparent homogeneity with consecutive column ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. Both enzymes have a lot of common properties, such as the ability to hydrolyze very effectively p-nitrophenyl-5'-TMP and heat-denatured DNA. They both have no preferential specificity to the sugar component of the nucleic acids and effectively digest ribopolymers. Their ability to hydrolyze supercoiled DNA of the pBR322 plasmid and linear DNA of the lambda phage by "miscellaneous" exo- and endonucleolytic types of attack and to produce nucleosides, nucleotides and short oligonucleotides suggests their similarity with phosphodiesterase I (5'-exonuclease, oligonucleate 5'-nucleotidohydrolase; E.C. 3.1.4.1), isolated from rattle snake Crotalus adamenteus venom. Alk DNase II has been revealed to have some uncommon properties, such as phosphomonoesterase and hemolytic activities. The protein causes a very potent lysis of human and rabbit erythrocytes. The ability of alk DNase II to precipitate some components of normal human and rabbit blood serum as well as the inhibition of this reaction by fucose but not by another monosaccharides suggest the enzyme to have a lectin-like activity. The appearance of only one protein band during electrophoresis of alk DNase II in denaturation conditions suggests that all activities are inherent to the same molecule of protein. The possible role of alkaline DNases in the toxic effect of burning by actinia tentacles is discussed.