Maturase K

Maturase K (matK) is a plant plastidial gene. The protein it encodes is an organelle intron maturase, a protein that splices Group II introns. It is essential for in vivo splicing of Group II introns. Amongst other maturases, this protein retains only a well conserved domain X and remnants of a reverse transcriptase domain.

Universal matK primers can be used for DNA barcoding of angiosperms.

See also

• LtrA, an open reading frame found in the Lactococcus lactis group II introns LtrB. It is an intron-encoded protein, with three subdomains, one of which is a reverse-transcriptase/maturase.

References