Essentially all of the DNA polymerase alpha activity in CV-1 monkey cells could be extracted as an enzyme complex that used DNA substrates with a low primer:template ratio, such as denatured DNA, at least 25 times more efficiently than did purified alpha polymerase. This form of the enzyme was rapidly dissociated either by the nonionic detergent Triton X-100 or by chromatography on phosphocellulose to generate alpha polymerase and its protein cofactor complex, C1C2. Both alpha polymerase and C1C2 were then independently purified free of deoxyribonuclease, RNA polymerase, DNA ligase, and ATPase activities, and the C1C2 complex was shown to consist of at least two proteins. Purified C1C2, which exhibited no DNA polymerase activity, completely restored the ability of alpha polymerase to use denatured DNA. Although high concentrations of denatured DNA inhibited the activity of C1C2, which binds tightly to single-stranded but not double-stranded DNA, low concentrations catalyzed reconstitution of alpha polymerase with C1C2. The resulting enzyme complex was chromatographically distinct from alpha polymerase on DEAE-Bio-Gel, was no longer dependent upon addition of C1C2 in order to utilize denatured DNA as effectively as DNase I-activated DNA, and was not inhibited by high concentrations of denatured DNA. These properties of the purified reconstituted enzyme were indistinguishable from those native alpha X C1C2-polymerase.