To determine the optimal length of the stem, researchers modified its length and observed how quickly termination occurred. When the length of the stem was lengthened or shortened from the standard 8-9 base pair length, termination was less efficient, and if the changes were great enough, termination ceased completely.
Experiments determined that if an oligonucleotide sequence that is identical to the downstream portion of the stem is present, it will base pair with the upstream portion. This creates a structure that is analogous to the native stem-loop structure but is missing the loop at the end. Without the presence of the loop, intrinsic termination is still able to occur. This indicates that the loop is not inherently necessary for intrinsic termination.
Generally, the absence of the uracil-rich sequence following the stem-loop will result in a delay or pause in transcription, but termination will not cease completely.