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. 1989 Jul 25;17(14):5665-77.
doi: 10.1093/nar/17.14.5665.

RNA stem stability in the formation of a self-cleaving hammerhead structure

C C Sheldon  1 , R H Symons
Affiliations
Free PMC article

RNA stem stability in the formation of a self-cleaving hammerhead structure

C C Sheldon et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

The proposed single-hammerhead structure of the self-cleaving newt RNA is unstable due to a weak stem III and therefore is unable to mediate self-cleavage. A double-hammerhead structure with greater theoretical stability has been shown to mediate the self-cleavage of this RNA (Forster et al., 1988, Nature 334, 265). We have found that the double-hammerhead mediated self-cleavage reaction of a 40 base RNA containing the newt sequence (termed nCG) can be converted to a single-hammerhead reaction by increasing the size of stem III and/or of its loop, thereby enabling a single-hammerhead structure to form. In addition, the 5'-self-cleavage fragment of the nCG RNA can act in trans to mediate the self-cleavage of a full-length RNA by the formation of a partial double-hammerhead structure.

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