Biochemical analysis of hatchet self-cleaving ribozymes

Hatchet RNAs are members of a novel self-cleaving ribozyme class that was recently discovered by using a bioinformatics search strategy. The consensus sequence and secondary structure of this class includes 13 highly conserved and numerous other modestly conserved nucleotides interspersed among bulges linking four base-paired substructures. A representative hatchet ribozyme from a metagenomic source requires divalent ions such as Mg²⁺ to promote RNA strand scission with a maximum rate constant of ∼4 min⁻¹. As with all other small self-cleaving ribozymes discovered to date, hatchet ribozymes employ a general mechanism for catalysis involving the nucleophilic attack of a ribose 2′-oxygen atom on an adjacent phosphorus center. Kinetic characteristics of the reaction demonstrate that members of this ribozyme class have an essential requirement for divalent metal ions and that they might have a complex active site that employs multiple catalytic strategies to accelerate RNA cleavage by internal phosphoester transfer.