Nucleic Acids Research, 1991, Vol. 19, No. 3 559-564
© 1991
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY |
Non-ribozyme sequences enhance self-cleavage of ribozymes derived from Hepatitis delta virus
Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Drexel University Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
*To whom correspondence should be addressed
Revised December 21, 1990. Accepted December 21, 1990.
Analysis of the self-cleavage of ribozymes derived from the genomic RNA of Hepatitis delta virus (HDV) has revealed that certain co-transcribed vector sequences significantly affect the activity of the ribozyme. Specifically, the t
of self-cleavage for a 135 nucleotide HDV RNA varied, at 42°C, from 5 min to 88 mfn, depending on the vector-derived sequences flanking the 5' end of the ribozyme. Further analysis suggested that this phenomenon was most likely due to the interaction of vector-derived sequences with a 16 nucleotide region found at the 3' end of the ribozyme. These findings have implications for studies of ribozymes transcribed from cDNA templates, and may provide information regarding the catalytic structure of the HDV ribozyme.