hairpin transfer noun1 •Transfer of genetic information from a strand of nucleic acid that terminates in a hairpin ribozyme by first detaching one side of the base of the hairpin, so that the hairpin is flattened out before making the RNA copy.Because the terminal sequences are not perfect inverted repeats, hairpin transfer results in two end sequences that are related but the inverted complement of each other. — 1999 formshairpin transfers
