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Chloroplast FtsZ assembles into a contractible ring via tubulin-like heteropolymerization

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16095 (2016) Cite this article

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Abstract

Chloroplast division is driven by a ring containing FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 proteins, which originated from bacterial FtsZ, a tubulin-like protein; however, mechanistic details of the chloroplast FtsZ ring remain unclear. Here, we report that FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 can heteropolymerize into a contractible ring ex vivo. Fluorescently labelled FtsZ1 and/or FtsZ2 formed single rings in cells of the yeast Pichia pastoris. Photobleaching experiments indicated that co-assembly of FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 imparts polarity to polymerization. Assembly of FtsZ chimaeras revealed that the protofilaments assemble via heteropolymerization of FtsZ2 and FtsZ1. Contraction of the ring was accompanied by an increase in the filament turnover rate. Our findings suggest that the evolutionary duplication of FtsZ in plants may have increased the mobility and kinetics of FtsZ ring dynamics in chloroplast division. Thus, the gene duplication and heteropolymerization of chloroplast FtsZs may represent convergent evolution with eukaryotic tubulin.

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Figure 1: Reconstitution of a single FtsZ ring in P. pastoris cells.
Figure 2: Assembly and kinetics of chloroplast FtsZ rings ex vivo.
Figure 3: Hetero-interactions of FtsZ2 and FtsZ1.
Figure 4: Competitive binding experiments using polymerization-deficient mutants of FtsZ2 and FtsZ1.
Figure 5: Schematic representation of tubulin-like heteropolymerization of chloroplast FtsZs.
Figure 6: Constriction dynamics of the reconstituted chloroplast FtsZ rings.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Porter for helpful discussions. This research was supported by a Human Frontier Science Program Long Term Fellowship (LT000356/2011-L to Y.Y.), a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Research Abroad (to Y.Y.) and the National Science Foundation (grant MCB-1121943 to K.W.O.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824-1312, Michigan, USA

    Yamato Yoshida, Allan D. TerBush & Katherine W. Osteryoung

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

    Yuko Mogi

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  1. Yamato Yoshida
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Contributions

Y.Y. designed the research and experiments. Y.Y. and Y.M. performed experiments and analysed the results. Y.Y., Y.M., A.D.T. and K.W.O. discussed the results. Y.Y., Y.M., A.D.T. and K.W.O. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yamato Yoshida.

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Supplementary Methods, Supplementary References, Supplementary Figs 1-8 and Supplementary Tables 1 and 2. (PDF 1829 kb)

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Yoshida, Y., Mogi, Y., TerBush, A. et al. Chloroplast FtsZ assembles into a contractible ring via tubulin-like heteropolymerization. Nature Plants 2, 16095 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.95

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