RNA ribozyme polymerases, dephosphorylases, restriction endoribo-nucleases and methods

A method for locating a nucleotide sequence in an RNA molecule having a first length, comprising the steps of:

• providing an enzymatic RNA molecule having an endonuclease activity independent of any protein,
• contacting said enzymatic RNA molecule with said RNA molecule wherein said enzymatic RNA molecule will cleave said RNA molecule at any said nucleotide sequence present in said RNA molecule, and
• determining the length of resulting RNA molecules resulting from said contacting step as an indication of the location of the nucleotide sequence in said RNA molecule.

A method for locating a plurality of nucleotide sequences in an RNA molecule having a first length, comprising the steps of:

• providing a plurality of different enzymatic RNA molecules having an endonuclease activity independent of any protein, each said different enzymatic RNA molecule cleaving said RNA molecule at a different said nucleotide sequence of said plurality of nucleotide sequences;
• contacting said plurality of different enzymatic RNA molecules with said RNA molecule wherein each said different enzymatic RNA molecule will cleave said RNA molecule at any said different nucleotide sequence present in said RNA molecule, and
• determining the length of resulting RNA molecules resulting from said contacting step as an indication of the location of the nucleotide sequence in said RNA molecule.

A method for detecting the presence of a nucleotide sequence in an RNA molecule, comprising the steps of:

• providing an enzymatic RNA molecule having an endonuclease activity independent of any protein,
• contacting said enzymatic RNA molecule with said RNA molecule wherein said enzymatic RNA molecule will cleave said RNA molecule of any said nucleotide sequence present in said RNA molecule to produce two or more fragments of said RNA molecule, and
• detecting the presence of said fragments as an indication of the presence of said nucleotide sequence.

A method for producing an enzymatic RNA molecule having an endonuclease activity of any protein, comprising the steps of:

• providing DNA encoding RNA consisting essentially of said enzymatic RNA molecule under the transcriptional control of a promoter, and
• transcribing said DNA from said promoter to produce said enzymatic RNA molecule.

A vector for production of an enzymatic RNA molecule having an endonuclease activity independent of any protein, comprising:

• DNA encoding said enzymatic RNA molecule, and
• a promoter positioned relative to said DNA to cause transcription of said DNA to form an RNA molecule consisting essentially of said enzymatic RNA molecule.

A plasmid selected from the group consisting of pSPTT1A3, pT7-TT1A3, pBGST7, pBG/-2G:23C, pBG/23C, pBG/-3G:24C, pBG/24C, pBG/-4G:25C, pBG/25C, and pBG/23A.sub.4.