Proks have dynamin like molecules!

When I was a grad student, eukaryotes had all the neatest toys ... actin, microtubules, kinesins, dynein, myosin, dynamin, SNAREs ...

OK that's not totally true - bacteria had their version of tubulin (the constituent of microtubules), and it's called FtsZ. Then others found that bacteria had a version of actin, the most known is called MreB. The latest is that prokaryotes have dynamin. (Click here for previous dynamin entries.)

From the paper:

Given the presence of large GTPases with predicted dynamin-like domain organization in many members of the Eubacteria such as E. coli and Bacillus subtilis, it is likely that bacterial dynamins, or BDLPs as we term this class, are not restricted to cyanobacteria. Such observation, combined with our results, suggests a bacterial ancestry for the dynamin superfamily.

And yes, it forms radial tubes in vitro.

And yes, it also it tubulates membranes in vitro.

And yes, they have a crystal structure.

And yes, it's totally cool.

Ref:
Harry H. Low and Jan Löwe
A bacterial dynamin-like protein
Nature advance online publication 22 November 2006 doi:10.1038/nature05312

PS: What's next? Will we find that proks have membrane trafficking?