eLife (Oct 2016)

Curvature-induced expulsion of actomyosin bundles during cytokinetic ring contraction

  • Junqi Huang,
  • Ting Gang Chew,
  • Ying Gu,
  • Saravanan Palani,
  • Anton Kamnev,
  • Douglas S Martin,
  • Nicholas J Carter,
  • Robert Anthony Cross,
  • Snezhana Oliferenko,
  • Mohan K Balasubramanian

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.21383
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5

Abstract

Read online

Many eukaryotes assemble a ring-shaped actomyosin network that contracts to drive cytokinesis. Unlike actomyosin in sarcomeres, which cycles through contraction and relaxation, the cytokinetic ring disassembles during contraction through an unknown mechanism. Here we find in Schizosaccharomyces japonicus and Schizosaccharomyces pombe that, during actomyosin ring contraction, actin filaments associated with actomyosin rings are expelled as micron-scale bundles containing multiple actomyosin ring proteins. Using functional isolated actomyosin rings we show that expulsion of actin bundles does not require continuous presence of cytoplasm. Strikingly, mechanical compression of actomyosin rings results in expulsion of bundles predominantly at regions of high curvature. Our work unprecedentedly reveals that the increased curvature of the ring itself promotes its disassembly. It is likely that such a curvature-induced mechanism may operate in disassembly of other contractile networks.

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