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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Microbiol. 2019 Jun 3;27(9):781–791. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2019.04.011

Figure 3. Bundling vs cross-linking of FtsZ filaments.

Figure 3.

(A) Images of FtsZ-GFP in wild type (WT) and a mutant lacking the Ter signal (ΔzapB). (B) FtsZ filaments are present in patches in the Z ring. The filaments are presumed to be aligned in parallel based upon the directional movement seen in bundles and patches. In WT cells the primary interaction between filaments may be due to crosslinking proteins (ZapA, ZapC, and ZapD). In the absence of two of these (ZapA and ZapC) cells are elongated and cells contain spiral Z rings (similar to images in (A)). Overexpression of FtsZ or the presence of FtsZ-L169R may lead to increased bundling that compensates for the loss of Zap proteins.