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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

FtsZ Polymerization Assays: Simple Protocols and Considerations
Published on: November 16, 2013
[Partial sequence homology of FtsZ in phylogenetics analysis of lactic acid bacteria]
1Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
Abstract:
FtsZ is a structurally conserved protein, which is universal among the prokaryotes. It plays a key role in prokaryote cell division. A partial fragment of the ftsZ gene about 800bp in length was amplified and sequenced and a partial FtsZ protein phylogenetic tree for the lactic acid bacteria was constructed. By comparing the FtsZ phylogenetic tree with the 16S rDNA tree, it was shown that the two trees were similar in topology. Both trees revealed that Pediococcus spp. were closely related with L. casei group of Lactobacillus spp. , but less related with other lactic acid cocci such as Enterococcus and Streptococcus. The results also showed that the discriminative power of FtsZ was higher than that of 16S rDNA for either inter-species or inter-genus and could be a very useful tool in species identification of lactic acid bacteria.
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