[PDF] Tubulin and FtsZ form a distinct family of GTPases | Semantic Scholar

The prokaryotic tubulin homolog FtsZ polymerizes into a ring structure essential for bacterial cell division, and the nucleotide is exchangeable, explaining why, in this filament, nucleotide hydrolysis is the rate-limiting step during FTSZ polymerization.

This work has developed a model for the isodesmic polymerization that includes GTP hydrolysis in the scheme and predicts that unlike microtubules, FtsZ protofilaments consist of GTP-bound FTSZ subunits that hydrolyze their nucleotide only slowly and are connected by high affinity longitudinal bonds with a nanomolarK D .