scholarly journals AN ELECTRON MICROSCOPIC STUDY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLEAVAGE FURROW IN MAMMALIAN CELLS

1962 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Buck ◽  
James M. Tisdale

The process of cytoplasmic cleavage has been studied in thin sections of rat erythroblasts and the cells of mouse leukemia and Walker 256 carcinoma of the rat. The development of the cleavage furrow begins in relation to the mid-body, which, earlier, appears on the equatorial plane in association with the continuous fibers of the spindle. The earliest evidence of a cleavage furrow is the presence of a vesicle or vesicles close to the mid-body. Subsequently, many smaller vesicles are seen in the equatorial plane. The cleavage furrow probably develops by the fusion of these vesicles so that a new plasma membrane is formed between the daughter cells, and extends from the telophase intercellular bridge to the cell margin. During the stage of formation of the vesicles, cisternae, believed to be part of the endoplasmic reticulum, assume an intimate relationship with the cleavage plane, and they may perhaps be involved in the formation of the vesicles.

Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 3350
Author(s):  
Eleni Petsalaki ◽  
George Zachos

The abscission checkpoint contributes to the fidelity of chromosome segregation by delaying completion of cytokinesis (abscission) when there is chromatin lagging in the intercellular bridge between dividing cells. Although additional triggers of an abscission checkpoint-delay have been described, including nuclear pore defects, replication stress or high intercellular bridge tension, this review will focus only on chromatin bridges. In the presence of such abnormal chromosomal tethers in mammalian cells, the abscission checkpoint requires proper localization and optimal kinase activity of the Chromosomal Passenger Complex (CPC)-catalytic subunit Aurora B at the midbody and culminates in the inhibition of Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport-III (ESCRT-III) components at the abscission site to delay the final cut. Furthermore, cells with an active checkpoint stabilize the narrow cytoplasmic canal that connects the two daughter cells until the chromatin bridges are resolved. Unsuccessful resolution of chromatin bridges in checkpoint-deficient cells or in cells with unstable intercellular canals can lead to chromatin bridge breakage or tetraploidization by regression of the cleavage furrow. In turn, these outcomes can lead to accumulation of DNA damage, chromothripsis, generation of hypermutation clusters and chromosomal instability, which are associated with cancer formation or progression. Recently, many important questions regarding the mechanisms of the abscission checkpoint have been investigated, such as how the presence of chromatin bridges is signaled to the CPC, how Aurora B localization and kinase activity is regulated in late midbodies, the signaling pathways by which Aurora B implements the abscission delay, and how the actin cytoskeleton is remodeled to stabilize intercellular canals with DNA bridges. Here, we review recent progress toward understanding the mechanisms of the abscission checkpoint and its role in guarding genome integrity at the chromosome level, and consider its potential implications for cancer therapy.


2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (23) ◽  
pp. 3740-3748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inna Goliand ◽  
Dikla Nachmias ◽  
Ofir Gershony ◽  
Natalie Elia

Recently the ESCRT-III filamentous complex was designated as the driving force for mammalian cell abscission, that is, fission of the intercellular membrane bridge connecting daughter cells at the end of cytokinesis. However, how ESCRT-III is activated to set on abscission has not been resolved. Here we revisit the role of the upstream canonical ESCRT players ESCRT-II and CHMP6 in abscission. Using high-resolution imaging, we show that these proteins form highly ordered structures at the intercellular bridge during abscission progression. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a truncated version of CHMP6, composed of its first 52 amino acids (CHMP6-N), arrives at the intercellular bridge, blocks abscission, and subsequently leads to cell death. This phenotype is abolished in a mutated version of CHMP6-N designed to prevent CHMP6-N binding to its ESCRT-II partner. Of interest, deleting the first 10 amino acids from CHMP6-N does not interfere with its arrival at the intercellular bridge but almost completely abolishes the abscission failure phenotype. Taken together, these data suggest an active role for ESCRT-II and CHMP6 in ESCRT-mediated abscission. Our work advances the mechanistic understanding of ESCRT-mediated membrane fission in cells and introduces an easily applicable tool for upstream inhibition of the ESCRT pathway in live mammalian cells.


1962 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Buck ◽  
James M. Tisdale

The development of the mid-body has been studied in mitotic erythroblasts of the rat bone marrow by means of thin sections examined with the electron microscope. A differentiated region on the continuous spindle fibers, consisting of a localized increase in density, is observed at the equatorial plane. The mid-body seems to develop by the aggregation of such denser lengths of spindle fiber. Its appearance precedes that of the cleavage furrow. A plate-like arrangement of fibrillary material lies transversely across the telophase intercellular bridge. Later, this material becomes amorphous and assumes the form of a dense ring closely applied to a ridge in the plasma membrane encircling the middle of the bridge. Although the mid-body forms in association with the spindle fibers, it is a structurally distinct part, and the changes which it undergoes are not shared by the rest of the bundle of continuous fibers.


2000 ◽  
Vol 149 (6) ◽  
pp. 1215-1224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuo Emoto ◽  
Masato Umeda

Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) is a major membrane phospholipid that is mainly localized in the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane. We previously demonstrated that PE was exposed on the cell surface of the cleavage furrow during cytokinesis. Immobilization of cell surface PE by a PE-binding peptide inhibited disassembly of the contractile ring components, including myosin II and radixin, resulting in formation of a long cytoplasmic bridge between the daughter cells. This blockade of contractile ring disassembly was reversed by removal of the surface-bound peptide, suggesting that the PE exposure plays a crucial role in cytokinesis. To further examine the role of PE in cytokinesis, we established a mutant cell line with a specific decrease in the cellular PE level. On the culture condition in which the cell surface PE level was significantly reduced, the mutant ceased cell growth in cytokinesis, and the contractile ring remained in the cleavage furrow. Addition of PE or ethanolamine, a precursor of PE synthesis, restored the cell surface PE on the cleavage furrow and normal cytokinesis. These findings provide the first evidence that PE is required for completion of cytokinesis in mammalian cells, and suggest that redistribution of PE on the cleavage furrow may contribute to regulation of contractile ring disassembly.


1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 1476-1483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagath L. Kadurugamuwa ◽  
Terry J. Beveridge

ABSTRACT We developed a model to test whether non-membrane-permeative therapeutic agents such as gentamicin could be delivered into mammalian cells by means of bacterial membrane vesicles. Many gram-negative bacteria bleb off membrane vesicles (MVs) during normal growth, and the quantity of these vesicles can be increased by brief exposure to gentamicin (J. L. Kadurugamuwa and T. J. Beveridge, J. Bacteriol. 177:3998–4008, 1995), which can be entrapped within the MVs. Gentamicin-induced MVs (g-MVs) were isolated from Shigella flexneri and contained 85 ± 2 ng of gentamicin per μg of MV protein. Immunogold electron microscopic labeling of thin sections with antibodies specific to S. flexneri lipopolysaccharide (LPS) demonstrated the adherence and subsequent engulfment of MVs by the human Henle 407 intestinal epithelial cell line. Further incubation of g-MVs with S. flexneri-infected Henle cells revealed that the g-MVs penetrated throughout the infected cells and reduced the intracellular pathogen by ∼1.5 log10 CFU in the first hour of incubation. Antibiotic was detected in the cytoplasms of host cells, indicating the intracellular placement of the drug following the penetration of g-MVs. Soluble antibiotic, added as a fluid to the tissue culture growth medium, had no effect on intracellular bacterial growth, confirming the impermeability of the cell membranes of the tissue to gentamicin. Western blot analysis of MVs with S. flexneri Ipa-specific antibodies demonstrated that the invasion protein antigens IpaB, IpaC, and IpaD were present in MVs. Being bilayered, with outer faces composed of LPS and Ipa proteins, these MVs were readily engulfed by the otherwise impermeable membranes and eventually liberated their contents into the cytoplasmic substance of the host tissue.


1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 1259-1282 ◽  
Author(s):  
R L DeBiasio ◽  
G M LaRocca ◽  
P L Post ◽  
D L Taylor

The mechanism of cytokinesis has been difficult to define because of the short duration and the temporal-spatial dynamics involved in the formation, activation, force production, and disappearance of the cleavage furrow. We have investigated the structural and chemical dynamics of myosin II in living Swiss 3T3 cells from prometaphase through the separation and migration of daughter cells. The structural and chemical dynamics of myosin II have been defined using the semiautomated, multimode light microscope, together with a fluorescent analogue of myosin II and a fluorescent biosensor of myosin II regulatory light chain (RLC) phosphorylation at serine 19. The correlation of image data from live cells using different modes of light microscopy allowed interpretations not possible from single-mode investigations. Myosin II transported toward the equatorial plane from adjacent regions, forming three-dimensional fibers that spanned the volume of the equator during anaphase and telophase. A global phosphorylation of myosin II at serine 19 of the RLC was initiated at anaphase when cortical myosin II transport started. The phosphorylation of myosin II remained high near the equatorial plane through telophase and into cytokinesis, whereas the phosphorylation of myosin II at serine 19 of the RLC decreased at the poles. The timing and pattern of phosphorylation was the same as the shortening of myosin II-based fibers in the cleavage furrow. Myosin II-based fibers shortened and transported out of the cleavage furrow into the tails of the two daughter cells late in cytokinesis. The patterns of myosin II transport, phosphorylation, and shortening of fibers in the migrating daughter cells were similar to that previously defined for cells migrating in a wound in vitro. The temporal-spatial patterns and dynamics of myosin II transport, phosphorylation at serine 19 of the RLC, and the shortening and disappearance of myosin II-based fibers support the proposal that a combination of the cortical flow hypothesis and the solation-contraction coupling hypothesis explain key aspects of cytokinesis and polarized cell locomotion.


Author(s):  
Giulia Russo ◽  
Michael Krauss

Cytokinesis mediates the final separation of a mother cell into two daughter cells. Septins are recruited to the cleavage furrow at an early stage. During cytokinetic progression the septin cytoskeleton is constantly rearranged, ultimately leading to a concentration of septins within the intercellular bridge (ICB), and to the formation of two rings adjacent to the midbody that aid ESCRT-dependent abscission. The molecular mechanisms underlying this behavior are poorly understood. Based on observations that septins can associate with actin, microtubules and associated motors, we review here established roles of septins in mammalian cytokinesis, and discuss, how septins may support cytokinetic progression by exerting their functions at particular sites. Finally, we discuss how this might be assisted by phosphoinositide-metabolizing enzymes.


Author(s):  
J. T. Stasny ◽  
R. C. Burns ◽  
R. W. F. Hardy

Structure-functlon studies of biological N2-fixation have correlated the presence of the enzyme nitrogenase with increased numbers of intracytoplasmic membranes in Azotobacter. However no direct evidence has been provided for the internal cellular localization of any nitrogenase. Recent advances concerned with the crystallizatiorTand the electron microscopic characterization of the Mo-Fe protein component of Azotobacter nitrogenase, prompted the use of this purified protein to obtain antibodies (Ab) to be conjugated to electron dense markers for the intracellular localization of the protein by electron microscopy. The present study describes the use of ferritin conjugated to goat antitMo-Fe protein immunoglobulin (IgG) and the observations following its topical application to thin sections of N2-grown Azotobacter.


Author(s):  
J. P. Petrali ◽  
E. J. Donati ◽  
L. A. Sternberger

Specific contrast is conferred to subcellular antigen by applying purified antibodies, exhaustively labeled with uranium under immunospecific protection, to ultrathin sections. Use of Seligman’s principle of bridging osmium to metal via thiocarbohydrazide (TCH) intensifies specific contrast. Ultrathin sections of osmium-fixed materials were stained on the grid by application of 1) thiosemicarbazide (TSC), 2) unlabeled specific antiserum, 3) uranium-labeled anti-antibody and 4) TCH followed by reosmication. Antigens to be localized consisted of vaccinia antigen in infected HeLa cells, lysozyme in monocytes of patients with monocytic or monomyelocytic leukemia, and fibrinogen in the platelets of these leukemic patients. Control sections were stained with non-specific antiserum (E. coli).In the vaccinia-HeLa system, antigen was localized from 1 to 3 hours following infection, and was confined to degrading virus, the inner walls of numerous organelles, and other structures in cytoplasmic foci. Surrounding architecture and cellular mitochondria were unstained. 8 to 14 hours after infection, antigen was localized on the outer walls of the viral progeny, on cytoplasmic membranes, and free in the cytoplasm. Staining of endoplasmic reticulum was intense and focal early, and weak and diffuse late in infection.


Author(s):  
Glen B. Haydon

High resolution electron microscopic study of negatively stained macromolecules and thin sections of tissue embedded in a variety of media are difficult to interpret because of the superimposed phase image granularity. Although all of the information concerning the biological structure of interest may be present in a defocused electron micrograph, the high contrast of large phase image granules produced by the substrate makes it impossible to distinguish the phase ‘points’ from discrete structures of the same dimensions. Theory predicts the findings; however, it does not allow an appreciation of the actual appearance of the image under various conditions. Therefore, though perhaps trivial, training of the cheapest computer produced by mass labor has been undertaken in order to learn to appreciate the factors which affect the appearance of the background in high resolution electron micrographs.


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