Escherichia coli nucleoside diphosphate kinase (Ndk) catalyzes ATP-dependent synthesis of ribo-and deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates from the cognate diphosphate precursor. Recently, the Ndk polypeptide was reported to be a multifunctional base excision repair nuclease that processed uracil residues in DNA by acting sequentially as a uracil-DNA glycosylase inhibitor protein ( . USA 100, 13247-13252]. Here we demonstrate that the E. coli Ndk polypeptide lacked detectable uracil-DNA glycosylase activity and, hence, was incapable of acting as a uracil-processing DNA repair nuclease. This finding was based on the following observations: (i) uracil-DNA glycosylase activity did not copurify with Ndk activity; (ii) Ndk purified from E. coli ung ؊ cells showed no detectable uracil-DNA glycosylase activity; and (iii) Ndk failed to bind to a Ugi-Sepharose affinity column that tightly bound E. coli uracil-DNA glycosylase (Ung). Collectively, these observations demonstrate that the E. coli Ndk polypeptide does not possess inherent uracil-DNA glycosylase activity.