title: The chloroplast division protein FtsZ is encoded by a nucleomorph gene in cryptomonads.
abstract: Guillardia theta is a cryptomonad alga, whose phototrophic symbiont was acquired by secondary endocytobiosis. The nucleomorph, the vestigial nucleus of the eukaryotic endosymbiont, harbors three linear chromosomes with a total coding capacity of 515 kb. Sequencing of the nucleomorph genome reveals that it encodes an ORF homologous to the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ, supporting the hypothesis that FtsZ is common in chloroplasts. We show that the nucleomorph-encoded ftsZ gene is transcribed. The transcript is polyadenylated and therefore shows features typical of eukaryotic transcripts. However, 3' processing of nucleomorph mRNA is inaccurate. Transcripts of nucleomorph genes in G. theta overlap with neighboring UTRs and coding regions. We demonstrate that the reading frame encoding NmFtsZ is not interrupted by introns. Subcellular localization of the protein reveals that FtsZ is localized exclusively in the chloroplast of G. theta, demonstrating that FtsZ is imported into the organelle.
authors.affiliation: Abteilang für Zellbiologie und Angewandte Botanik, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany. fraunhol@mailer.uni-marburg.de
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Fraunholz
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moerschel
authors.forename: U G
authors.initials: UG
authors.lastname: Maier
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000235:genetics*; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000235:genetics*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013347:Subcellular Fractions
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C095113:FTSZ protein, Arabidopsis; D010940:Plant Proteins