Five components spontaneously self-assemble to yield the productive complex 1, where one barium ion delivers an ethoxide to the carbonyl group of an amide substrate anchored by means of a distal carboxylate moiety to the other barium ion. High substrate specificity, fairly high reaction rates with catalytic turnover, and competitive inhibition by inert substrates are observed.
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Cacciapaglia et al. (1999) studied this question.