Chloroplast division in higher plants requires members of two functionally divergent gene families with homology to bacterial ftsZ

The division of plastids is critical for viability in photosynthetic eukaryotes, but the mechanisms associated with this process are still poorly understood. We previously identified a nuclear gene from Arabidopsis encoding a chloroplast-localized homolog of the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Plant cell Vol. 10; no. 12; pp. 1991 - 2004
Main Authors:	Osteryoung, K.W, Stokes, K.D, Rutherford, S.M, Percival, A.L, Lee, W.Y
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States American Society of Plant Physiologists 01-12-1998 American Society of Plant Biologists
Subjects:	Amino Acid Sequence amino acid sequences Amino acids antisense DNA Arabidopsis Arabidopsis - genetics Arabidopsis - ultrastructure Arabidopsis Proteins Arabidopsis thaliana atftsz1-1 gene atftsz2-1 gene Bacterial Proteins - genetics cell biology Cell Division chloroplast number Chloroplasts Chloroplasts - genetics complementary DNA cytochemistry Cytoskeletal Proteins DNA Primers - genetics DNA, Antisense - genetics DNA, Plant - genetics ftsz protein Gels genbank/af089738 genbank/u39877 Genes, Plant leaves Mesophyll cells Molecular Sequence Data Multigene Family nucleotide sequences Phylogeny plant anatomy Plant cells Plant Proteins Plants Plants, Genetically Modified Plastids Proteins replication RNA Sequence Homology, Amino Acid Space life sciences Species Specificity structural genes Transgenic plants
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Summary:	The division of plastids is critical for viability in photosynthetic eukaryotes, but the mechanisms associated with this process are still poorly understood. We previously identified a nuclear gene from Arabidopsis encoding a chloroplast-localized homolog of the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ, an essential cytoskeletal component of the prokaryotic cell division apparatus. Here, we report the identification of a second nuclear-encoded FtsZ-type protein from Arabidopsis that does not contain a chloroplast targeting sequence or other obvious sorting signals and is not imported into isolated chloroplasts, which strongly suggests that it is localized in the cytosol. We further demonstrate using antisense technology that inhibiting expression of either Arabidopsis FtsZ gene (AtFtsZ1-1 or AtFtsZ2-1) in transgenic plants reduces the number of chloroplasts in mature leaf cells from 100 to one, indicating that both genes are essential for division of higher plant chloroplasts but that each plays a distinct role in the process. Analysis of currently available plant FtsZ sequences further suggests that two functionally divergent FtsZ gene families encoding differentially localized products participate in chloroplast division. Our results provide evidence that both chloroplastic and cytosolic forms of FtsZ are involved in chloroplast division in higher plants and imply that important differences exist between chloroplasts and prokaryotes with regard to the roles played by FtsZ proteins in the division process.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:	1040-4651 1532-298X
DOI:	10.1105/tpc.10.12.1991