Patent ID: 7211661

Claim:
A modified trans-excision-splicing Group I ribozyme comprising at least two modifiable recognition elements, wherein at least one of said recognition elements is complementary to non-native target RNA sequence within a substrate having a 5′ and 3′ end and at least one of said recognition elements stabilizes binding of the ribozyme to a trans-excision splicing (TES) reaction intermediate product, and wherein the ribozyme initiates a first catalytic step in the absence of a guanosine cofactor and catalyzes a sequence specific excision of the non-native target RNA sequence, thereby forming a first intermediate comprising the 5′ end of the substrate and a second intermediate comprising the 3′ end of the substrate, each intermediate having a 5′ and 3′ end, and splices the 3′ end of the first intermediate to the guanosine of the 5′ end of the second intermediate created by the excision.