Cytokinesis in vertebrate cells initiates by contraction of an equatorial actomyosin network composed of randomly oriented filaments

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Journal Article | Published | English

Scopus indexed
Author
Spira, Felix; Cuylen Haering, Sara; Mehta, Shalin; Samwer, Matthias; Reversat, AnneISTA ; Verma, Amitabh; Oldenbourg, Rudolf; Sixt, Michael KISTA ; Gerlich, Daniel
Department
Abstract
The actomyosin ring generates force to ingress the cytokinetic cleavage furrow in animal cells, yet its filament organization and the mechanism of contractility is not well understood. We quantified actin filament order in human cells using fluorescence polarization microscopy and found that cleavage furrow ingression initiates by contraction of an equatorial actin network with randomly oriented filaments. The network subsequently gradually reoriented actin filaments along the cell equator. This strictly depended on myosin II activity, suggesting local network reorganization by mechanical forces. Cortical laser microsurgery revealed that during cytokinesis progression, mechanical tension increased substantially along the direction of the cell equator, while the network contracted laterally along the pole-to-pole axis without a detectable increase in tension. Our data suggest that an asymmetric increase in cortical tension promotes filament reorientation along the cytokinetic cleavage furrow, which might have implications for diverse other biological processes involving actomyosin rings.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2017-11-06
Journal Title
eLife
Publisher
eLife Sciences Publications
Volume
6
Article Number
e30867
ISSN
IST-REx-ID
569
All files available under the following license(s):
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0):
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OA Open Access
Date Uploaded
2018-12-12
MD5 Checksum
ba09c1451153d39e4f4b7cee013e314c
Access Level
OA Open Access
Date Uploaded
2018-12-12
MD5 Checksum
01eb51f1d6ad679947415a51c988e137


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