The division of endosymbiotic organelles.
Mitochondria and chloroplasts are essential eukaryotic organelles of endosymbiotic origin. Dynamic cellular machineries divide these organelles. The mechanisms by which mitochondria and chloroplasts divide were thought to be fundamentally different because chloroplasts use proteins derived from the ancestral prokaryotic cell division machinery, whereas mitochondria have largely evolved a division apparatus that lacks bacterial cell division components. Recent findings indicate, however, that both types of organelles universally require dynamin-related guanosine triphosphatases to divide. This mechanistic link provides fundamental insights into the molecular events driving the division, and possibly the evolution, of organelles in eukaryotes.
Osteryoung
Katherine W
KW
Department of Plant Biology, 166 Plant Biology Building, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. osteryou@msu.edu
Nunnari
Jodi
J
D000818:Animals; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D001419:Bacteria / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002455:Cell Division; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D034281:Dynamins / Q000378:metabolism; D020558:GTP Phosphohydrolases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D013559:Symbiosis
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; C095113:FTSZ protein, Arabidopsis; C071525:FtsZ protein, Bacteria; D010940:Plant Proteins; D020558:GTP Phosphohydrolases; D034281:Dynamins