Measurements of weak interactions between truncated substrates and a hammerhead ribozyme by competitive kinetic analyses: implications for the design of new and efficient ribozymes with high sequence specificity.

Exploitation of ribozymes in a practical setting requires high catalytic activity and strong specificity. The hammerhead ribozyme R32 has considerable potential in this regard since it has very high catalytic activity. In this study, we have examined how R32 recognizes and cleaves a specific substrate, focusing on the mechanism behind the specificity.