Time-lapse images have revealed the final steps of cell division, when a thin intercellular bridge connecting the two cells (pictured) splits.
Daniel Gerlich at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and Thomas Müller-Reichert at Dresden University of Technology in Germany found that helical protein filaments wrap around and constrict this bridge, narrowing it to a single stalk just before the cells separate.
High-resolution imaging of a fluorescently tagged protein found in a complex called ESCRT-III revealed that the complex accumulates where the bridge tightens. In cells lacking the complex, the intercellular bridge did not constrict. The authors propose that ESCRT-III components join together to form the filament helices.
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Cell division in a pinch. Nature 470, 308 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/470308a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/470308a
