Plus strand priming during retroviral reverse transcription requires specific cleavage within the polypurine tract of the viral genome by the reverse transcriptase-associated RNase H. Previously it has been shown that a 190-base RNA-DNA hybrid containing the Moloney murine leukemia virus polypurine tract can serve as a substrate for the priming reaction. To investigate the structural requirements for the reaction, a series of DNA oligonucleotides was hybridized to the 190-base single-stranded RNA and tested as substrates for RNase H. At low enzyme concentrations, the sites of cleavage are located 17-23 nucleotides from the 3'-end of the DNA oligonucleotide, consistent with the observations of others that binding of the DNA polymerase at a primer terminus fixes the position of cleavage by RNase H. At higher enzyme concentrations, additional cleavages are observed in the RNA 3' of these sites, but there is no preference for cleavage at the plus strand origin. In contrast to the results with DNA oligonucleotides, hybridization of RNA oligonucleotides containing the polypurine tract to the 190-base single-stranded DNA generates substrates that are cleaved at the origin and efficiently extended into DNA. An RNA oligonucleotide hybridized downstream of the polypurine tract is cleaved but not extended. These results support the view that RNase H cleavage to generate the plus strand primer is uncoupled from minus strand DNA synthesis.