Caffeine, at doses which enhance the killing action of ultraviolet light, inhibits both de novo synthesis and the utilization of exogenous purines in cultured CHO-K1, a Chinese hamster ovary cell line. The decrease in synthesis was measured as inhibition by caffeine of the accumulation of phosphoribosylformylglycineamide or of phosphoribosylaminoimidazolecarboxamide, the fourth and ninth intermediates, respectively, in the de novo biosynthetic pathway. The effect is dose dependent, with a caffeine concentration of 7.5 mM producing a 90% reduction in 15 min. Interference with utilization of exogenous purines was seen as a substantial decrease in the conversion of [14C]hypoxanthine, [14C]adenine, or [14C]guanine into their respective di- and triphosphates in the presence of caffeine. Purine deprivation either by starvation of purine-requiring mutants or by treatment of parental cells with methylmercaptopurine ribonucleoside, a known inhibitor of purine synthesis, results in a partial sensitization to killing by ultraviolet light which can be maximized by the addition of caffeine. Thus, one of the ways by which antimetabolites and caffeine act to enhance ultraviolet light killing may be by interference with the supply of purine nucleotides needed for repair.