The polyamine spermine can not replace Mg2+ in the reactions catalyzed by avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase. In the presence of suboptimal Mg2+ concentrations, spermine enhanced the reverse transcriptase activities with viral 70 S RNA and synthetic polyriboadenylic acid as templates, about 4-fold and 2-fold, respectively. A similar effect occurred in the polyriboadenylic acid-directed reaction using Mn2+ as divalent cation. On the other hand, no stimulation by spermine was observed with activated DNA and polydeoxyadenylic acid as template in the reactions catalyzed by reverse transcriptase.1967-76