FIGURE 1.

Kinetic mechanism. The reaction pathway for intermolecular catalysis by minimal hairpin ribozymes includes substrate binding, cleavage, release of 5′ and 3′ cleavage products and the reverse steps of substrate dissociation, ligation, and product binding. Interdomain docking steps follow substrate and product binding steps. H1 and H2 are the intermolecular base-paired helices that ribozymes form with substrate and cleavage product RNAs. (Adapted from Fedor 2000 and reprinted with permission from Elsevier © 2000.)