FtsZ-less cell division in archaea and bacteria.
A dedicated cell division machinery is needed for efficient proliferation of an organism. The eukaryotic actin-myosin based mechanism and the bacterial FtsZ-dependent machinery have both been characterized in detail, and a third division mechanism, the Cdv system, was recently discovered in archaea from the Crenarchaeota phylum. Despite these findings, division mechanisms remain to be identified in, for example, organisms belonging to the bacterial PVC superphylum, bacteria with extremely reduced genomes, wall-less archaea and bacteria, and in archaea that carry out the division process without cell constriction. Cytokinesis mechanisms in these clades and individual taxa are likely to include adaptation of host functions to division of bacterial symbionts, transfer of bacterial division genes into the host genome, vesicle formation without a dedicated constriction machinery, cross-wall formation without invagination, as well as entirely novel division mechanisms.
Department of Molecular Evolution, Evolutionary Biology Center, Norbyvägen 18C, SE 75236 Uppsala, Sweden. Rolf.Bernander@ebc.uu.se
Rolf
R
Bernander
Thijs Jg
TJ
Ettema
D001105:Archaea / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002455:Cell Division; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; C071525:FtsZ protein, Bacteria