acts to cleave the target rna thus the ribozyme first recognizes and then binds a target rna through complementary base pairing and once bound to the correct site acts enzymatically to cut the target rna strategic cleavage of such a target rna will destroy its ability to direct synthesis of an encoded protein after a ribozyme has bound and cleaved its rna target it is released from that rna to search for another target and can repeatedly bind and cleave new targets by 34 complementarity 34 is meant a nucleic acid that can form hydrogen bond s with other rna sequence by either traditional watson crick or other non traditional types for example hoogsteen type of base paired interactions six basic varieties of naturally occurring enzymatic rnas are known presently each can catalyze the hydrolysis of rna phosphodiester bonds in trans and thus can cleave other rna molecules under physiological conditions table i summarizes some of the characteristics of these ribozymes in general enzymatic nucleic acids act by first binding to a target rna such binding occurs through the target binding portion of a enzymatic nucleic acid which is held in close proximity to an enzymatic portion of the molecule that acts to cleave the target rna thus the enzymatic nucleic acid first recognizes and then binds a target rna through complementary base pairing and once bound to the correct site acts enzymatically to cut the target rna strategic cleavage of such a target rna will destroy its ability to direct synthesis of an encoded protein after an enzymatic nucleic acid has bound and cleaved its rna target it is released from that rna to search for another target and can repeatedly bind and cleave new targets the enzymatic nature of a ribozyme is advantageous over other technologies such as.