scholarly journals Crosslinking activity of non-muscle myosin II is not sufficient for embryonic cytokinesis in C. elegans

Development ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 146 (21) ◽  
pp. dev179150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Osório ◽  
Fung-Yi Chan ◽  
Joana Saramago ◽  
Joana Leite ◽  
Ana M. Silva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
DS Osorio ◽  
FY Chan ◽  
J Saramago ◽  
J Leite ◽  
AM Silva ◽  
...  

AbstractCytokinesis in animal cells requires the assembly of a contractile actomyosin ring, whose subsequent constriction physically separates the two daughter cells. Non-muscle myosin II (myosin) is essential for cytokinesis, but the role of its motor activity remains poorly defined. Here, we examine cytokinesis in C. elegans one-cell embryos expressing myosin motor mutants generated by genome editing. Motor-dead myosin, which is capable of binding F-actin, does not support cytokinesis, and embryos co-expressing motor-dead and wild-type myosin are delayed in cytokinesis. Partially motor-impaired myosin also delays cytokinesis and renders contractile rings more sensitive to reduced myosin levels. Thus, myosin motor activity, rather than its ability to cross-link actin filaments, drives contractile ring assembly and constriction. We further demonstrate that myosin motor activity is required for long-range cortical actin flows, but that flows per se play a minor role in contractile ring assembly. Our results suggest that flow-independent recruitment of motor-competent myosin to the cell equator is both essential and rate-limiting for cytokinesis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. BBI.S9902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Divya P. Syamaladevi ◽  
Margaret S Sunitha ◽  
S. Kalaimathy ◽  
Chandrashekar C. Reddy ◽  
Mohammed Iftekhar ◽  
...  

Myosins are one of the largest protein superfamilies with 24 classes. They have conserved structural features and catalytic domains yet show huge variation at different domains resulting in a variety of functions. Myosins are molecules driving various kinds of cellular processes and motility until the level of organisms. These are ATPases that utilize the chemical energy released by ATP hydrolysis to bring about conformational changes leading to a motor function. Myosins are important as they are involved in almost all cellular activities ranging from cell division to transcriptional regulation. They are crucial due to their involvement in many congenital diseases symptomatized by muscular malfunctions, cardiac diseases, deafness, neural and immunological dysfunction, and so on, many of which lead to death at an early age. We present Myosinome, a database of selected myosin classes (myosin II, V, and VI) from five model organisms. This knowledge base provides the sequences, phylogenetic clustering, domain architectures of myosins and molecular models, structural analyses, and relevant literature of their coiled-coil domains. In the current version of Myosinome, information about 71 myosin sequences belonging to three myosin classes (myosin II, V, and VI) in five model organisms ( Homo Sapiens, Mus musculus, D. melanogaster, C. elegans and S. cereviseae) identified using bioinformatics surveys are presented, and several of them are yet to be functionally characterized. As these proteins are involved in congenital diseases, such a database would be useful in short-listing candidates for gene therapy and drug development. The database can be accessed from http://caps.ncbs.res.in/myosinome .


Haematologica ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 103 (12) ◽  
pp. 1997-2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro L. Moura ◽  
Bethan R. Hawley ◽  
Tosti J. Mankelow ◽  
Rebecca E. Griffiths ◽  
Johannes G.G. Dobbe ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 384-384
Author(s):  
Katharine H. Wrighton

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
pp. 3025-3039 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Moreno-Arotzena ◽  
C. Borau ◽  
N. Movilla ◽  
M. Vicente-Manzanares ◽  
J. M. García-Aznar

Physiology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 213-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caspar Rüegg ◽  
Claudia Veigel ◽  
Justin E. Molloy ◽  
Stephan Schmitz ◽  
John C. Sparrow ◽  
...  

Muscle myosin II is an ATP-driven, actin-based molecular motor. Recent developments in optical tweezers technology have made it possible to study movement and force production on the single-molecule level and to find out how different myosin isoforms may have adapted to their specific physiological roles.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Schmidt ◽  
Long Li ◽  
Zhiyi Lv ◽  
Shuling Yan ◽  
Jörg Großhans

Rho signaling with its major targets the formin Dia, Rho kinase (Rok) and non-muscle myosin II control turnover, amount and contractility of actomyosin. Much less investigated has been a potential function for the distribution of F-actin plus and minus ends. In syncytial Drosophila embryos Rho1 signaling is high between actin caps, i. e. the cortical intercap region. Capping protein binds to free plus ends of F-actin to prevent elongation of the filament. Capping protein has served as a marker to visualize the distribution of F-actin plus ends in cells and in vitro. Here, we probed the distribution of plus ends with capping protein in syncytial Drosophila embryos. We found that Capping proteins are specifically enriched in the intercap region similar to Dia and MyoII but distinct from overall F-actin. The intercap enrichment of Capping protein was impaired in dia mutants and embryos, in which Rok and MyoII activation was inhibited. Our observations reveal that Dia and Rok/MyoII control Capping protein enrichment and support a model that Dia and Rok/MyoII control the organization of cortical actin cytoskeleton downstream of Rho1 signaling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 219 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Chapa-y-Lazo ◽  
Motonari Hamanaka ◽  
Alexander Wray ◽  
Mohan K. Balasubramanian ◽  
Masanori Mishima

Nearly six decades ago, Lewis Wolpert proposed the relaxation of the polar cell cortex by the radial arrays of astral microtubules as a mechanism for cleavage furrow induction. While this mechanism has remained controversial, recent work has provided evidence for polar relaxation by astral microtubules, although its molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, using C. elegans embryos, we show that polar relaxation is achieved through dynein-mediated removal of myosin II from the polar cortexes. Mutants that position centrosomes closer to the polar cortex accelerated furrow induction, whereas suppression of dynein activity delayed furrowing. We show that dynein-mediated removal of myosin II from the polar cortexes triggers a bidirectional cortical flow toward the cell equator, which induces the assembly of the actomyosin contractile ring. These results provide a molecular mechanism for the aster-dependent polar relaxation, which works in parallel with equatorial stimulation to promote robust cytokinesis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanqing Guo ◽  
Michael Swan ◽  
Shicheng Huang ◽  
Bing He

Apical constriction driven by non-muscle myosin II (″myosin″) provides a well-conserved mechanism to mediate epithelial folding. It remains unclear how contractile forces near the apical surface of a cell sheet drive out-of-plane bending of the sheet and whether myosin contractility is required throughout folding. By optogenetic-mediated acute inhibition of myosin, we find that during Drosophila mesoderm invagination, myosin contractility is critical to prevent tissue relaxation during the early, ″priming″ stage of folding but is dispensable for the actual folding step after the tissue passes through a stereotyped transitional configuration, suggesting that the mesoderm is mechanically bistable during gastrulation. Combining computer modeling and experimental measurements, we show that the observed mechanical bistability arises from an in-plane compression from the surrounding ectoderm, which promotes mesoderm invagination by facilitating a buckling transition. Our results indicate that Drosophila mesoderm invagination requires a joint action of local apical constriction and global in-plane compression to trigger epithelial buckling.


Cell Reports ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 1060-1070.e4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele L. Markwardt ◽  
Nicole E. Snell ◽  
Min Guo ◽  
Yicong Wu ◽  
Ryan Christensen ◽  
...  

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