plant-evolution
Plant evolution describes the historical development of plants from unicellular organisms to the complex multicellular species inhabiting modern ecosystems, encompassing the transition from aquatic to terrestrial environments and from spore-bearing to seed-bearing forms. Understanding plant evolution is essential for explaining the diversity of plant structures, physiology, and ecological strategies that enable plants to thrive across different habitats. This research directly informs our knowledge of how evolutionary innovations—such as vascular tissue, seeds, and flowers—shaped the botanical world and continues to influence how plants adapt to changing environmental conditions.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-02-19
A new protein called FtsZ3 controls how plant chloroplasts divide in mosses and related plants by regulating the assembly and constriction of the chloroplast division machinery. This discovery reveals an evolutionary mechanism that could explain how organelle division differs across plant lineages.
FtsZ3 localizes to chloroplasts in hornwort, moss, and lycophyte as a stromal component of the chloroplast division machinery (CDM)
FtsZ3 has two distinct functions: its GTPase domain regulates self-assembly and restrains FtsZ2 beneath the inner envelope membrane, while its C-terminal motif interacts with ARC6 protein to enable chloroplast envelope constriction
FtsZ3 exhibits functional divergence from FtsZ2, revealing a previously unknown regulatory mechanism for chloroplast division across non-vascular plant lineages
