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Science 8 September 2006:
Vol. 313. no. 5792, pp. 1435 - 1438
DOI: 10.1126/science.1129689
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Reports

Isolated Chloroplast Division Machinery Can Actively Constrict After Stretching

Yamato Yoshida,1* Haruko Kuroiwa,1 Osami Misumi,1 Keiji Nishida,1 Fumi Yagisawa,1 Takayuki Fujiwara,1 Hideaki Nanamiya,1 Fujio Kawamura,1,2 Tsuneyoshi Kuroiwa1,2{dagger}

Chloroplast division involves plastid-dividing, dynamin, and FtsZ (PDF) rings. We isolated intact supertwisted (or spiral) and circular PDF machineries from chloroplasts of the red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae. After individual intact PDF machineries were stretched to four times their original lengths with optical tweezers, they spontaneously returned to their original sizes. Dynamin-released PDF machineries did not retain the spiral structure and could not be stretched. Thus, dynamin may generate the motive force for contraction by filament sliding in dividing chloroplasts, in addition to pinching-off the membranes.

1 Laboratory of Cell Biology, Department of Life Science, College of Science, Rikkyo (St. Paul's) University, Toshima, Tokyo 171-8501, Japan.
2 Research Information Center for Extremophile, Rikkyo (St. Paul's) University, Toshima, Tokyo 171-8501, Japan.

* Present address: Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo 277-8562, Japan.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tsune{at}rikkyo.ne.jp

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Assembly of the FtsZ Ring at the Mid-Chloroplast Division Site Depends on a Balance Between the Activities of AtMinE1 and ARC11/AtMinD1.
M. T. Fujiwara, H. Hashimoto, Y. Kazama, T. Abe, S. Yoshida, N. Sato, and R. D. Itoh (2008)
Plant Cell Physiol. 49, 345-361
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
WD40 protein Mda1 is purified with Dnm1 and forms a dividing ring for mitochondria before Dnm1 in Cyanidioschyzon merolae.
K. Nishida, F. Yagisawa, H. Kuroiwa, Y. Yoshida, and T. Kuroiwa (2007)
PNAS 104, 4736-4741
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)