scholarly journals Molecular organization of cytokinesis node predicts the constriction rate of the contractile ring

2021 ◽  
Vol 220 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Bellingham-Johnstun ◽  
Erica Casey Anders ◽  
John Ravi ◽  
Christina Bruinsma ◽  
Caroline Laplante

The molecular organization of cytokinesis proteins governs contractile ring function. We used single molecule localization microscopy in live cells to elucidate the molecular organization of cytokinesis proteins and relate it to the constriction rate of the contractile ring. Wild-type fission yeast cells assemble contractile rings by the coalescence of cortical proteins complexes called nodes whereas cells without Anillin/Mid1p (Δmid1) lack visible nodes yet assemble contractile rings competent for constriction from the looping of strands. We leveraged the Δmid1 contractile ring assembly mechanism to determine how two distinct molecular organizations, nodes versus strands, can yield functional contractile rings. Contrary to previous interpretations, nodes assemble in Δmid1 cells. Our results suggest that Myo2p heads condense upon interaction with actin filaments and an excess number of Myo2p heads bound to actin filaments hinders constriction thus reducing the constriction rate. Our work establishes a predictive correlation between the molecular organization of nodes and the behavior of the contractile ring.

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (16) ◽  
pp. 3094-3110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Laporte ◽  
Nikola Ojkic ◽  
Dimitrios Vavylonis ◽  
Jian-Qiu Wu

The actomyosin contractile ring assembles through the condensation of a broad band of nodes that forms at the cell equator in fission yeast cytokinesis. The condensation process depends on actin filaments that interconnect nodes. By mutating or titrating actin cross-linkers α-actinin Ain1 and fimbrin Fim1 in live cells, we reveal that both proteins are involved in node condensation. Ain1 and Fim1 stabilize the actin cytoskeleton and modulate node movement, which prevents nodes and linear structures from aggregating into clumps and allows normal ring formation. Our computer simulations modeling actin filaments as semiflexible polymers reproduce the experimental observations and provide a model of how actin cross-linkers work with other proteins to regulate actin-filament orientations inside actin bundles and organize the actin network. As predicted by the simulations, doubling myosin II Myo2 level rescues the node condensation defects caused by Ain1 overexpression. Taken together, our work supports a cooperative process of ring self-organization driven by the interaction between actin filaments and myosin II, which is progressively stabilized by the cross-linking proteins.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 989-1000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Stark ◽  
Thomas E. Sladewski ◽  
Luther W. Pollard ◽  
Matthew Lord

Myosin-II (Myo2p) and tropomyosin are essential for contractile ring formation and cytokinesis in fission yeast. Here we used a combination of in vivo and in vitro approaches to understand how these proteins function at contractile rings. We find that ring assembly is delayed in Myo2p motor and tropomyosin mutants, but occurs prematurely in cells engineered to express two copies of myo2. Thus, the timing of ring assembly responds to changes in Myo2p cellular levels and motor activity, and the emergence of tropomyosin-bound actin filaments. Doubling Myo2p levels suppresses defects in ring assembly associated with a tropomyosin mutant, suggesting a role for tropomyosin in maximizing Myo2p function. Correspondingly, tropomyosin increases Myo2p actin affinity and ATPase activity and promotes Myo2p-driven actin filament gliding in motility assays. Tropomyosin achieves this by favoring the strong actin-bound state of Myo2p. This mode of regulation reflects a role for tropomyosin in specifying and stabilizing actomyosin interactions, which facilitates contractile ring assembly in the fission yeast system.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 2160-2173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen T. Skau ◽  
Erin M. Neidt ◽  
David R. Kovar

Like animal cells, fission yeast divides by assembling actin filaments into a contractile ring. In addition to formin Cdc12p and profilin, the single tropomyosin isoform SpTm is required for contractile ring assembly. Cdc12p nucleates actin filaments and remains processively associated with the elongating barbed end while driving the addition of profilin-actin. SpTm is thought to stabilize mature filaments, but it is not known how SpTm localizes to the contractile ring and whether SpTm plays a direct role in Cdc12p-mediated actin polymerization. Using “bulk” and single actin filament assays, we discovered that Cdc12p can recruit SpTm to actin filaments and that SpTm has diverse effects on Cdc12p-mediated actin assembly. On its own, SpTm inhibits actin filament elongation and depolymerization. However, Cdc12p completely overcomes the combined inhibition of actin nucleation and barbed end elongation by profilin and SpTm. Furthermore, SpTm increases the length of Cdc12p-nucleated actin filaments by enhancing the elongation rate twofold and by allowing them to anneal end to end. In contrast, SpTm ultimately turns off Cdc12p-mediated elongation by “trapping” Cdc12p within annealed filaments or by dissociating Cdc12p from the barbed end. Therefore, SpTm makes multiple contributions to contractile ring assembly during and after actin polymerization.


2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Pollard

We use fission yeast to study the molecular mechanism of cytokinesis. We benefit from a long history in genetic analysis of the cell cycle in fission yeast, which provided the most complete inventory of cytokinesis proteins. We used fluorescence microscopy of proteins tagged with fluorescent proteins to establish the temporal and spatial pathway for the assembly and constriction of the contractile ring. We combined biochemical analysis of purified proteins (myosin-II, profilin, formin Cdc12p and cofilin), observations of fluorescent fusion proteins in live cells and mathematical modelling to formulate and test a simple hypothesis for the assembly of the contractile ring. This model involves the formation of 65 nodes containing myosin-II and formin Cdc12p around the equator of the cell. As a cell enters anaphase, actin filaments grow from formin Cdc12p in these nodes. Myosin captures actin filaments from adjacent nodes and pulls intermittently to condense the nodes into a contractile ring.


2003 ◽  
Vol 161 (5) ◽  
pp. 875-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Kovar ◽  
Jeffrey R. Kuhn ◽  
Andrea L. Tichy ◽  
Thomas D. Pollard

Cytokinesis in most eukaryotes requires the assembly and contraction of a ring of actin filaments and myosin II. The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe requires the formin Cdc12p and profilin (Cdc3p) early in the assembly of the contractile ring. The proline-rich formin homology (FH) 1 domain binds profilin, and the FH2 domain binds actin. Expression of a construct consisting of the Cdc12 FH1 and FH2 domains complements a conditional mutant of Cdc12 at the restrictive temperature, but arrests cells at the permissive temperature. Cells overexpressing Cdc12(FH1FH2)p stop growing with excessive actin cables but no contractile rings. Like capping protein, purified Cdc12(FH1FH2)p caps the barbed end of actin filaments, preventing subunit addition and dissociation, inhibits end to end annealing of filaments, and nucleates filaments that grow exclusively from their pointed ends. The maximum yield is one filament pointed end per six formin polypeptides. Profilins that bind both actin and poly-l-proline inhibit nucleation by Cdc12(FH1FH2)p, but polymerization of monomeric actin is faster, because the filaments grow from their barbed ends at the same rate as uncapped filaments. On the other hand, Cdc12(FH1FH2)p blocks annealing even in the presence of profilin. Thus, formins are profilin-gated barbed end capping proteins with the ability to initiate actin filaments from actin monomers bound to profilin. These properties explain why contractile ring assembly requires both formin and profilin and why viability depends on the ability of profilin to bind both actin and poly-l-proline.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Tyson ◽  
Kevin Hu ◽  
Shuai Zheng ◽  
Phylicia Kidd ◽  
Neville Dadina ◽  
...  

New bright, photostable, emission-orthogonal fluorophores that blink without toxic additives are needed to enable multi-color, live-cell, single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM), especially for experiments that demand ultra-high-resolution live imaging. Here we report the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of Yale676sb, a photostable, near-IR emitting fluorophore that achieves these goals in the context of an exceptional quantum yield (0.59). When used alongside HMSiR, Yale676sb enables simultaneous, live-cell, two-color SMLM of two intracellular organelles (ER + mitochondria) with only a single laser and no chemical additives.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Pauli ◽  
Mila M. Paul ◽  
Sven Proppert ◽  
Marzieh Sharifi ◽  
Felix Repp ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTRevealing the molecular organization of anatomically precisely defined brain regions is necessary for the refined understanding of synaptic plasticity. Although, three-dimensional (3D) single-molecule localization microscopy can provide the required molecular resolution, single-molecule imaging more than a few micrometers deep into tissue remains challenging. To quantify presynaptic active zones (AZ) of entire, large, conditional detonator hippocampal mossy fiber (MF) boutons with diameters as large as 10 µm, we developed a method for aberration-free volumetricdirectstochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM). An optimized protocol for fast repeated axial scanning and efficient sequential labeling of the AZ scaffold Bassoon and membrane bound GFP with Alexa Fluor 647 enables 3D-dSTORM imaging of 25 µm thick mouse brain sections and assignment of AZs to specific neuronal substructures. Quantitative data analysis revealed large differences in Bassoon cluster size and density for distinct hippocampal regions with largest clusters in MF boutons.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Franke ◽  
Urska Repnik ◽  
Sandra Segeletz ◽  
Nicolas Brouilly ◽  
Yannis Kalaidzidis ◽  
...  

AbstractMany cellular organelles, including endosomes, show compartmentalization into distinct functional domains, which however cannot be resolved by diffraction-limited light microscopy. Single molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) offers nanoscale resolution but data interpretation is often inconclusive when the ultrastructural context is missing. Correlative light electron microscopy (CLEM) combining SMLM with electron microscopy (EM) enables correlation of functional sub-domains of organelles in relation to their underlying ultrastructure at nanometer resolution. However, the specific demands for EM sample preparation and the requirements for fluorescent single-molecule photo-switching are opposed. Here, we developed a novel superCLEM workflow that combines triple-colour SMLM (dSTORM & PALM) and electron tomography using semi-thin Tokuyasu thawed cryosections. We applied the superCLEM approach to directly visualize nanoscale compartmentalization of endosomes in HeLa cells. Internalized, fluorescently labelled Transferrin and EGF were resolved into morphologically distinct domains within the same endosome. We found that the small GTPase Rab5 is organized in nano-domains on the globular part of early endosomes. The simultaneous visualization of several proteins in functionally distinct endosomal sub-compartments demonstrates the potential of superCLEM to link the ultrastructure of organelles with their molecular organization at nanoscale resolution.SynopsisSuborganelle compartmentalization cannot be resolved by diffraction limited light microscopy and not interpreted without knowledge of the underlying ultrastructure. This work shows a novel superCLEM workflow that combines multi-colour single-molecule localization-microscopy with electron tomography to map several functional domains on early endosomes. superCLEM reveals that the small GTPase Rab5 is organized in nano-domains largely devoid from cargo molecules Transferrin and EGF and opens new possibilities to perform structure-function analysis of organelles at the nanoscale.


2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 5195-5210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie C. Coffman ◽  
Aaron H. Nile ◽  
I-Ju Lee ◽  
Huayang Liu ◽  
Jian-Qiu Wu

Two prevailing models have emerged to explain the mechanism of contractile-ring assembly during cytokinesis in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe: the spot/leading cable model and the search, capture, pull, and release (SCPR) model. We tested some of the basic assumptions of the two models. Monte Carlo simulations of the SCPR model require that the formin Cdc12p is present in >30 nodes from which actin filaments are nucleated and captured by myosin-II in neighboring nodes. The force produced by myosin motors pulls the nodes together to form a compact contractile ring. Live microscopy of cells expressing Cdc12p fluorescent fusion proteins shows for the first time that Cdc12p localizes to a broad band of 30–50 dynamic nodes, where actin filaments are nucleated in random directions. The proposed progenitor spot, essential for the spot/leading cable model, usually disappears without nucleating actin filaments. α-Actinin ain1 deletion cells form a normal contractile ring through nodes in the absence of the spot. Myosin motor activity is required to condense the nodes into a contractile ring, based on slower or absent node condensation in myo2-E1 and UCS rng3-65 mutants. Taken together, these data provide strong support for the SCPR model of contractile-ring formation in cytokinesis.


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