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J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.01797-07
Copyright (c) 2008, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Characterization and evolution of cell division and cell wall synthesis genes in the bacterial phyla Verrucomicrobia, Lentisphaerae, Chlamydiae and Planctomycetes and phylogenetic comparison with rRNA genes

Lehrstuhl für Mikrobiologie, Technical University Munich, Am Hochanger 4, D-85354 Freising, Germany; Dipartimento di Biologia, University of Pisa, via A. Volta 4/6, I-56126 Pisa, Italy

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: martin-pilhofer{at}web.de.

	Abstract

In the past, the studies on the relationships of the bacterial phyla Planctomycetes, Chlamydiae, Lentisphaerae, and Verrucomicrobia using different phylogenetic markers have been controversial. Investigations based on 16S rRNA sequence analyses suggested a relationship of the four phyla, showing the branching order Planctomycetes, Chlamydiae, Verrucomicrobia/Lentisphaerae. Phylogenetic analyses of 23S rRNA genes in this study also support a monophyletic grouping and their branching order – this grouping is significant for understanding cell division since the major bacterial cell division protein FtsZ is absent from members of two of the phyla, Chlamydiae and Planctomycetes.

In Verrucomicrobia, knowledge about cell division is mainly restricted to the recent report of ftsZ in the closely related genera Prosthecobacter and Verrucomicrobium. In this study, genes of the conserved division and cell wall (dcw) cluster (ddl, ftsQ, ftsA, ftsZ) were characterized in all verrucomicrobial subdivisions with cultivable representatives (1-4). Sequence analyses and transcriptional analyses in Verrucomicrobia and genome data analyses in Lentisphaerae suggested that cell division is based on FtsZ in all verrucomicrobial subdivisions and possibly also in the sister phylum Lentisphaerae.

Comprehensive sequence analyses of available genome data of representatives of Verrucomicrobia, Lentisphaerae, Chlamydiae and Planctomycetes strongly indicate that their last common ancestor possessed a conserved, ancestral type of dcw gene cluster and an FtsZ-based cell division mechanism. This implies that Planctomycetes and Chlamydiae may have shifted independently to a non-FtsZ-based cell division mechanism after their separate branchings from their last common ancestor with Verrucomicrobia.