Deoxyribonuclease II from porcine spleen has a molecular weight of 38 kDa. The enzyme is a glycoprotein endonuclease with dimeric structure. Optimum pH range is 4.5-5.0 at ionic strength 0.15 M. Deoxyribonuclease II (Acid DNase) hydrolyzes deoxyribonucleotide linkages in native and denatured DNA yielding products with 3"-phosphates. It also acts on p-nitrophenylphosphodiesters at pH 5.6-5.9. Bernardi (BBRC, 17, 573, 1971) describes a three stage degradation of native DNA by DNase II.