Definition of "ribozyme" []

• An RNA segment that has the ability to catalyze the cleavage and formation of covalent bonds in RNA strands at specific sites. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The ribozyme was the template, and was self-complementary."
• "The alternative hypothesis to autocatalysis by catalysis via ligation or other reactions is the hope to form an RNA enzyme, called a ribozyme, that can act as a "polymerase" enzyme able to catalyze the template replication of any RNA, by sequential addition of nucleotides that are Watson Crick complements of the template strand."
• "There must exist some mechanism for manufacturing the enzyme (or other biological catalyst, such as ribozyme), and that mechanism must be subject to mutation capable of altering the structure of the enzyme."