Nalidixic acid, a very specific inhibitor of bacterial DNA synthesis, has been studied for its action on the avian myeloblastosis virus reverse transcriptase activity. The drug inhibited the DNA synthesis reaction catalyzed by the viral enzyme in the presence of different template-primers. The inhibitory effect by nalidixic acid was higher with polyriboadenylic acid than with polyribocytidylic acid as a synthetic template. With activated DNA as a template nalidixic acid preferentially inhibited the TMP incorporation when compared with the dAMP incorporation. Both these results showed the importance of the presence of adenine in the templates for a more efficient inhibition by nalidixic acid. The inhibition for this drug was also shown in the presence of Mn2+ instead of Mg2+ as the divalent cation, and with a 2'-fluorinated analogue of polyriboadenylic acid as the template. Kinetic data showed a non-competitive inhibition by nalidixic acid in relation to polyriboadenylic acid and to TTP in the reaction catalyzed by reverse transcriptase.108169-74