Generally, the role of the arginine finger in catalysis is to function in transition state stabilization to allow water to perform a nucleophilic attack to cleave off a number of phosphate groups. However, there are exceptions, and arginine fingers can assist in other roles. Additionally, arginine fingers may be attached to different subunits or other proteins in a multiprotein complex. Arginine fingers sometimes interact with guanidinium during their role in catalysis.
