A monoclonal antibody prepared against a partially purified human uracil DNA glycosylase was found, on further purification of the enzyme, to be inactive against the glycosylase. However, immunoreactivity was observed in other protein fractions that contained DNA polymerase activity. The immunoreactive protein was purified to homogeneity and identified as a catalytic subunit of DNA polymerase a by molecular mass, by aphidicolin sensitivity, and by recognition by a monoclonal antibody against human KB cell DNA polymerase a. Our monoclonal antibody had no effect on homogeneous human uracil DNA glycosylase activity but severely inhibited the activity of the homogeneous human DNA polymerase a catalytic subunit. The suspicion that the two proteins were physically associated was confirmed by finding that, on mixing the DNA polymerase a subunit with the glycosylase, the latter was strongly inhibited by our monoclonal antibody. These results demonstrate that this monoclonal antibody recognizes not only the DNA polymerase a subunit but also the uracil DNA glycosylase when it is physically attached to the polymerase subunit. These results contribute to the definition of relationships between those proteins that may comprise the human base-excision repair multienzyme complex.Recent studies have characterized the in vitro individual enzymatic reactions involved in human DNA repair. Similar studies have examined cellular DNA repair synthesis and the excision of DNA adducts in vivo (1-4). However, specific structural interrelationships between these individual proteins within multienzyme repair complexes may be an a priori requirement for the proper cellular function of individual components ofexcision repair pathways. In addition, specific alterations ofsuch physical relationships within distinct DNA repair complexes may provide a molecular mechanism for the individual cellular hypersensitivity in human genetic syndromes characterized by high rates of neoplasia (3).To examine the structural associations required for the activity of multienzyme DNA repair pathways, we prepared a series of monoclonaf antibodies using partially purified human placental uracil DNA glycosylase as the antigen (5). The uracil DNA glycosylase removes uracil residues from DNA as an initial step of base-excision repair (1, 2). Uracil may be formed in DNA by the mutagenic deamination of cytidine (6, 7) or by the utilization of dUTP during DNA replication (8,9). The resultant apyrimidinic site would be the substrate for subsequent endonuclease incision.