Little is known about the division of eukaryotic cell organelles and up to now neither in animals nor in plants has a gene product been shown to mediate this process. A cDNA encoding a homolog of the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ, an ancestral tubulin, was isolated from the eukaryote Physcomitrella patens and used to disrupt efficiently the genomic locus in this terrestrial seedless plant. Seven out of 51 transgenics obtained were knockout plants generated by homologous recombination; they were specifically impeded in plastid division with no detectable effect on mitochondrial division or plant morphology. Implications on the theory of endosymbiosis and on the use of reverse genetics in plants are discussed.

It has been a long-standing dogma in life sciences that only eukaryotic organisms possess a cytoskeleton. Recently, this belief was questioned by the finding that the bacterial cell division protein FtsZ resembles tubulin in sequence and structure and, thus, may be the progenitor of this major eukaryotic cytoskeletal element. Here, we report two nuclear-encoded plant ftsZ genes which are highly conserved in coding sequence and intron structure. Both their encoded proteins are imported into plastids and there, like in bacteria, they act on the division process in a dose-dependent manner. Whereas in bacteria FtsZ only transiently polymerizes to a ring-like structure, in chloroplasts we identified persistent, highly organized filamentous scaffolds that are most likely involved in the maintenance of plastid integrity and in plastid division. As these networks resemble the eukaryotic cytoskeleton in form and function, we suggest the term “plastoskeleton” for this newly described subcellular structure.

The moss Physcomitrella patens (Hedw.) B.S.G. is the first land plant in which gene disruption by homologous recombination is directly accessible. In order to obtain cloned sequences which may be used in such an approach, complementary DNAs (cDNAs) have been isolated by subtractive hybridisation of representative cDNA libraries from cytokinin-treated tissue. Sequencing of these clones from both ends yielded over 35 kb of non-redundant sequence information, of which 20 kb results from clones which appear to be novel to plants. Database comparisons have revealed that 39 of the expressed sequence tags (ESTs) generated show significant homology to identified sequences. Analysis of these ESTs shows a high degree of conservation between Physcomitrella and seed plant sequences, and codon usage is found to be very similar to that in dicotyledonous species. Furthermore, 43 sequences showing no significant homology to sequences in the databases represent previously unidentified expressed genes.

Phylogenetic relationships of 14 species and one variety of the genus Polygonatum as well as three species of the genus Disporopsis and Heteropolygonatum roseolum were analyzed based on mapped restriction site variation in a PCR‐amplified chloroplast genome region, trnK. In agreement with earlier taxonomic treatments it was found that Disporopsis and Heteropolygonatum should be distinguished from Polygonatum at generic level, and that P. sect. Polygonatum can be recognized as a monophyletic group. Earlier series concepts in P. sect. Polygonatum based on chromosome number and characteristics of staminal filaments are not supported by the molecular data. The molecular data suggest that satellite chromosome morphology might prove valuable as a diagnostic character in Polygonatum sect. Polygonatum.