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Published online 13 November 2000. doi:10.1083/jcb.151.4.945
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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2000/11/945/ $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 151, Number 4, November 13, 2000 945-950

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Visualization of a Cytoskeleton-like FtsZ Network in Chloroplasts

Justine Kiesslinga, Sven Krusea, Stefan A. Rensinga, Klaus Hartera, Eva L. Deckera, and Ralf Reskia
a University of Freiburg, Plant Biotechnology, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany

Correspondence to: Ralf Reski, Freiburg University, Plant Biotechnology, Sonnenstrasse 5, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany. Tel:49-761-203-6969 Fax:49-761-203-6967

It has been a long-standing dogma in life sciences that only eukaryotic organisms possess a cytoskeleton. Recently, this belief was questioned by the finding that the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ resembles tubulin in sequence and structure and, thus, may be the progenitor of this major eukaryotic cytoskeletal element. Here, we report two nuclear-encoded plant ftsZ genes which are highly conserved in coding sequence and intron structure. Both their encoded proteins are imported into plastids and there, like in bacteria, they act on the division process in a dose-dependent manner. Whereas in bacteria FtsZ only transiently polymerizes to a ring-like structure, in chloroplasts we identified persistent, highly organized filamentous scaffolds that are most likely involved in the maintenance of plastid integrity and in plastid division. As these networks resemble the eukaryotic cytoskeleton in form and function, we suggest the term "plastoskeleton" for this newly described subcellular structure.

Key Words: FtsZ, plastid division, plastoskeleton, cytoskeleton, Physcomitrella


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