Specific labeling of intracellular Toxoplasma gondii with uracil.

Radioactive uracil was not significantly incorporated into the nucleic acids of human fibroblast cells. Infection of these cells with Toxoplasma gondii resulted in an exponential increase in the rate of uracil incorporation that paralleled the exponential growth of the parasite. One day after infection the rate of uracil incorporation was increased 100-fold. It was established by autoradiography that all of the [3H] uracil was incorporated into the intracellular parasites. A possible explanation for this difference in ability to use uracil is our observation that the specific activity of uridine phosphorylase was 100-fold greater in partially purified parasites than in the host cell.