Two-step positioning of a cleavage furrow by cortexillin and myosin II.
BACKGROUND
Myosin II, a conventional myosin, is dispensable for mitotic division in Dictyostelium if the cells are attached to a substrate, but is required when the cells are growing in suspension. Only a small fraction of myosin II-null cells fail to divide when attached to a substrate. Cortexillins are actin-bundling proteins that translocate to the midzone of mitotic cells and are important for the formation of a cleavage furrow, even in attached cells. Here, we investigated how myosin II and cortexillin I cooperate to determine the position of a cleavage furrow.


RESULTS
Using a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-cortexillin I fusion protein as a marker for priming of a cleavage furrow, we found that positioning of a cleavage furrow occurred in two steps. In the first step, which was independent of myosin II and substrate, cortexillin I delineated a zone around the equatorial region of the cell. Myosin II then focused the cleavage furrow to the middle of this cortexillin I zone. If asymmetric cleavage in the absence of myosin II partitioned a cell into a binucleate and an anucleate portion, cell-surface ruffles were induced along the cleavage furrow, which led to movement of the anucleate portion along the connecting strand towards the binucleate one.


CONCLUSIONS
In myosin II-null cells, cleavage furrow positioning occurs in two steps: priming of the furrow region and actual cleavage, which may proceed in the middle or at one border of the cortexillin ring. A control mechanism acting at late cytokinesis prevents cell division into an anucleate and a binucleate portion, causing a displaced furrow to regress if it becomes aberrantly located on top of polar microtubule asters.
Weber
I
I
Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried, D-82152, Germany.
Neujahr
R
R
Du
A
A
Köhler
J
J
Faix
J
J
Gerisch
G
G
D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D002455:Cell Division; D004023:Dictyostelium; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008870:Microtubules / Q000502:physiology; D009218:Myosins / Q000378:metabolism*; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism
D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D015800:Protozoan Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C101109:ctxA protein, Dictyostelium discoideum; D009218:Myosins