Isolation of two plastid division ftsZ genes from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and its evolutionary implication for the role of FtsZ in plastid division

In order to elucidate the origin of the plastid division gene ftsZ in green plant lineage, and to understand the significance of this divergence for the function of FtsZ proteins in plants, two full-length cDNAs (accession numbers AF449446 and AB084236) were isolated from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a base species of green plant lineage. A phylogenetic analysis based on amino acid sequences of eukaryotic FtsZs reveals that an ancient duplication of the ftsZ gene occurred after the endosymbiotic event. The ancient duplication implies that two ftsZ families might play an indispensable role at the early endosymbiotic stage.