Figure 1

Conserved sequence blocks in the tubulin/FtsZ superfamily. The conserved blocks are separated by numbers which indicate the length of less well conserved sequence segments that are not shown (see Additional File 1). The alignment columns are colored on the basis of the respective position conservation throughout the superfamily: yellow background indicates hydrophobic residues (ACFILMVWY), red letters indicate polar residues (DEHKNQR), and green background indicates small residues (ACGNPSTV). Asterisks indicate amino acid residues that are conserved in the majority of the tubulins including artubulins but not in the majority of the FtsZ sequences. Each sequence is denoted by the corresponding taxon abbreviation followed by the species abbreviation and GenBank Identification (GI) number. Taxa abbreviations: A, Archaea; B, Bacteria; E, Eukaryota; Ac, Crenarchaeota; Ae, Euryarchaeota; An, Nanoarchaeota; At, Thaumarchaeota; Bv, Verrucomicrobia; Ec, Alveolata; Ek, Euglenozoa; El, Fungi/Metazoa group; Ep, Viridiplantae; Eq, Heterolobosea. Species abbreviations: Arath, Arabidopsis thaliana; Chlre, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Danre, Danio rerio; Drome, Drosophila melanogaster; Galga, Gallus gallus; Mondo, Monodelphis domestica; Musmu, Mus musculus; Naegr, Naegleria gruberi; Naneq, Nanoarchaeum equitans Kin4-M; Nemve, Nematostella vectensis; Ornan, Ornithorhynchus anatinus; Parte, Paramecium tetraurelia; Phypa, Physcomitrella patens; Plakn, Plasmodium knowlesi strain H; Plavi, Plasmodium vivax SaI-1; Prodeb, Prosthecobacter debontii; Prodej, Prosthecobacter dejongeii; Prova, Prosthecobacter vanneervenii; Sacce, Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288c; Strpu, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus; Tetth, Tetrahymena thermophila; Triad, Trichoplax adhaerens; Trycr, Trypanosoma cruzi; Xenla, Xenopus laevis.