[Study of the interaction of DNA primase from calf thymus and human placenta with oligonucleotides matrices of various length and structure].

Human placenta DNA-primase as a component of the DNA-polymerase alpha-primase multienzyme complex was examined with a view of establishing the dependence of Km values in the reaction of oligoriboadenylate synthesis from ATP on the length of a poly(dT) template. The pKm values increased linearly up to ten monomeric units of the oligo(dT)n template. These data favour oligo(dT)10 as an optimal template covered by the active site of this enzyme. The DNA-primase catalyzed processively the synthesis at each polymerization cycle of a unique length primer (7-10 nucleotides) as follows from the analysis of the primer length and its distribution with time. It is suggested that the 10 mer DNA-RNA duplex of the template and the primer is a critical size for dissociation of primase and further elongation of the primer by DNA-polymerase in the presence of dNTP.