Kinetic studies were done to elucidate the reaction mechanism of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) in Micrococcus Luteus. PNP catalyzes the reversible phosphorolysis of ribonucleosides to their respective base. The effect of alternative competing substrates suggested that a single enzyme was involved in binding to the active site for all purine nucleosides, inosine, deoxyiosine, guanosine, deoxyguanosine, adenosine and deoxyadenosine. Affinity studies showed that pentose moiety reduced the binding capacity and methylation of ring N-1 of inosine and guanosine had little effect on binding to bacterial enzyme, whereas these compounds did not bind to the mammalian enzymes. The initial velocity and product inhibition studies demonstrated that the predominant mechanism of reaction was an ordered bi, bi reaction. The nucleoside bound to the enzyme first, followed by phosphate. Ribose 1-phosphate was the first product to leave, followed by base.