This paper investigates the self-organization of treadmilling filaments, focusing on the bacterial protein FtsZ, crucial for cell division. The authors demonstrate that treadmilling, a process where filaments grow at one end and shrink at the other, drives filament nematic ordering by dissolving misaligned filaments. This mechanism is shown to align FtsZ filaments in vitro and to drive the organization of the division ring (Z-ring) in living *Bacillus subtilis* cells. A computational model quantitatively explains the Z-ring formation dynamics in vivo, highlighting the role of treadmilling in the self-organization of cytoskeletal filaments.

Christian Vanhille-Campos, Kevin D. Whitley, Philipp Radler, Martin Loose, Séamus Holden, Anđela Šarić