InterPro domain: IPR024757

The FtsZ family of proteins are involved in polymer formation. FtsZ is the polymer-forming protein of bacterial cell division. It is part of a ring in the middle of the dividing cell that is required for constriction of cell membrane and cell envelope to yield two daughter cells. FtsZ is a GTPase, like tubulin [ 1 ]. FtsZ can polymerise into tubes, sheets, and rings in vitro and is ubiquitous in eubacteria and archaea [ 2 ].

This entry represents a domain of FtsZ. In most FtsZ proteins is found in the C terminus, except in some alphaproteobacteria proteins where there is an extension C-terminal domain TIGR03483 .

1. Tubulin and FtsZ form a distinct family of GTPases. Nat. Struct. Biol. 5, 451-8
2. Crystal structure of the bacterial cell-division protein FtsZ. Nature 391, 203-6