Graphical Abstract: ChemBioChem 8/2002

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 197 KB
• Volume: 3
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1439-4227
• DOI: 10.1002/1439-7633(20020802)3:8<683::aid-cbic683>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

683 COVER PICTURE

The cover picture shows a view of the hammerhead ribozyme from the major groove side of the junction. In this view, the catalytic domain 1 is on the left side, with the scissile phosphodiester bond arrowed. Domain 2, which mediates the interaction between the coaxially stacked helices, is on the right-hand side. Further details can be found in the article by Hammann and Lilley on p. 690 ff.

REVIEWS

Nature's minimalist catalytic macromolecules: The hammerhead ribozyme is one of the most studied catalytic RNA species. The RNA is induced to fold into the active conformation by two metal-ion-binding events; these generate the environment (see figure) in which the cleavage reaction is accelerated by 10 5 -fold. The analysis of this small ribozyme sheds considerable light on the processes of biocatalysis in general.