InterPro domain: IPR045061

This entry represents the tubulin-like proteins FtsZ and CetZ. FtsZ is a homologue of eukaryotic tubulin and is essential in the process of cell division; it forms a contractile ring structure (Z ring) at the future cell division site. The regulation of the ring assembly controls the timing and the location of cell division. One of the functions of the FtsZ ring is to recruit other cell division proteins to the septum to produce a new cell wall between the dividing cells [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].

Homologous from plants, such as AtFtsZ2-1, AtFtsZ1 and AtFtsZ2-2 are components of the plastid division machinery that forms a contractile ring at the division site and are required for plastid division in a dose-dependent manner [ 4 ]. Cetz, an archaeal tubulin-like protein related to tubulin and FtsZ, was initially annotated as FtsZ3 or FtsZ type 2, does not affect cell division, instead, it is involved in cell shape control, required for differentiation of the irregular plate-shaped cells into a rod-shaped cell type that is essential for normal swimming motility [ 5 ]. CetZ co-exists with FtsZ in many archaea. These proteins contain a GTPase domain that binds and hydrolyses GTP.

1. GTPase activity of mycobacterial FtsZ is impaired due to its transphosphorylation by the eukaryotic-type Ser/Thr kinase, PknA. J. Biol. Chem. 281, 40107-13
2. An essential cell division gene of Drosophila, absent from Saccharomyces, encodes an unusual protein with tubulin-like and myosin-like peptide motifs. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94, 5189-94
3. Crystal structure of the bacterial cell-division protein FtsZ. Nature 391, 203-6
4. GTP-dependent heteropolymer formation and bundling of chloroplast FtsZ1 and FtsZ2. J Biol Chem
5. CetZ tubulin-like proteins control archaeal cell shape. Nature 285, 20634-43