InterPro domain: IPR024937

Group II introns are widespread in plant cell organelles [ 1 ]. In vivo, most plant group II introns do not self-splice, but require the assistance of proteinaceous splicing factors, known as maturases. In higher plants, maturases are encoded for in the nuclear genes [ 2 ], but are otherwise encoded by organellar introns.

This entry represents a sequence region known as domain X, which is conserved in group II introns [ 3 ] and is required for maturase function [ 4 ].

1. Evolutionary origin of a plant mitochondrial group II intron from a reverse transcriptase/maturase-encoding ancestor. J. Plant Res. 119, 363-71
2. Putative proteins related to group II intron reverse transcriptase/maturases are encoded by nuclear genes in higher plants. Nucleic Acids Res. 31, 647-52
3. Evolutionary relationships among group II intron-encoded proteins and identification of a conserved domain that may be related to maturase function. Nucleic Acids Res. 21, 4991-7
4. Splicing defective mutants of the COXI gene of yeast mitochondrial DNA: initial definition of the maturase domain of the group II intron aI2. Nucleic Acids Res. 22, 2057-64