Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Parallel High Throughput Single Molecule Kinetic Assay for Site-Specific DNA Cleavage
Published on: May 6, 2020
Idiosyncratic cleavage and ligation activity of individual hammerhead ribozymes and core sequence variants thereof
Rita Przybilski1, Christian Hammann
1AG Molecular Interactions, Department of Genetics, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Str 40, Kassel, Germany.
Abstract:
The hammerhead ribozyme is a small RNA endonuclease found in sub-viral plant pathogens, in transcripts from certain animal satellite DNAs and encoded at distinct loci of Arabidopsis thaliana. Kinetic analyses of tertiary stabilised ribozymes from peach latent mosaic viroid (PLMVd), Schistosoma mansoni and A. thaliana revealed a ten-fold difference in cleavage rates. Core nucleotide variations affected cleavage reactions least in the A. thaliana ribozyme, and most in the S. mansoni ribozyme. The reverse ligation reaction was catalysed efficiently by the PLMVd and A. thaliana ribozymes. The different behaviour of the individual hammerhead ribozymes is discussed in terms of structure and function.
Related Concept Videos
Ribozymes
Ribozymes can be...
Ribozymes
Ribozymes can be...
Restriction Enzymes
The host bacteria protect their own genomic DNA from these enzymes by methylating these sites. Some...
DNA Helicases
Conservative Site-specific Recombination and Phase Variation
The recognition sites for Cre recombinase called LoxP...
The Replisome
The synthesis of the leading and lagging strands is a highly coordinated process. To explain this, the “Trombone model” was proposed by Bruce Alberts in 1980. The DNA loop formation starts when a primer is synthesized on the parent lagging strand. The loop grows with the...

