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A spindle-independent cleavage furrow positioning pathway

Nature volume 467, pages 91–94 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

The mitotic spindle determines the cleavage furrow site during metazoan cell division1,2, but whether other mechanisms exist remains unknown. Here we identify a spindle-independent mechanism for cleavage furrow positioning in Drosophila neuroblasts. We show that early and late furrow proteins (Pavarotti, Anillin, and Myosin) are localized to the neuroblast basal cortex at anaphase onset by a Pins cortical polarity pathway, and can induce a basally displaced furrow even in the complete absence of a mitotic spindle. Rotation or displacement of the spindle results in two furrows: an early polarity-induced basal furrow and a later spindle-induced furrow. This spindle-independent cleavage furrow mechanism may be relevant to other highly polarized mitotic cells, such as mammalian neural progenitors.

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Figure 1: Polarized cortical localization of Pav/Myosin furrow markers.
Figure 2: Spindle-independent cleavage furrow positioning.
Figure 3: Neuroblasts use both spindle-induced and polarity-induced furrow positioning pathways.
Figure 4: Mechanism of polarity-induced furrow formation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Brand, D. Glover, C.-Y. Lee, M. Peifer, J. Raff, E. Wieschaus, A. Wilde, and the Bloomington and Vienna Drosophila RNAi Center stock centres for fly stocks and/or antibody reagents; R. Andersen, B. Bowerman, M. Goulding and B. Nolan for comments on the manuscript; and T. Gillies and K. Hirono for technical support. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (GM068032; to K.P.), the American Heart Association (to C.C. and K.P.), the Swiss National Science Foundation (to C.C.) and HHMI (to C.Q.D.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403, Oregon, USA

    Clemens Cabernard & Chris Q. Doe

  2. Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403, Oregon, USA

    Clemens Cabernard, Kenneth E. Prehoda & Chris Q. Doe

  3. Institute of Neuroscience, University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403, Oregon, USA

    Clemens Cabernard & Chris Q. Doe

Authors
  1. Clemens Cabernard
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  2. Kenneth E. Prehoda
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  3. Chris Q. Doe
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Contributions

C.C., K.E.P. and C.Q.D. conceived and designed the project. C.C. performed all the experiments. C.C. and C.Q.D. wrote the manuscript with input from K.E.P.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chris Q. Doe.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Figures 1-4 with legends and legends for Supplementary Movies 1-11. (PDF 310 kb)

Supplementary Movies 1-3

This movie shows that Pavarotti, Anillin and Myosin is localized to the larval neuroblast basal cortex in early anaphase C (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 3243 kb)

Supplementary Movie 4

This movie shows that asymmetric Myosin localization does not require the mitotic spindle (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 959 kb)

Supplementary Movie 5

This movie shows that an apically displaced spindle does not alter the asymmetric localization of Myosin (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 1384 kb)

Supplementary Movie 6

This movie shows that the altered spindle orientation does not change Pavarotti basal localization (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 932 kb)

Supplementary Movie 7

This movie shows that the altered spindle orientation does not change Myosin localization to the basal cortex (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 610 kb)

Supplementary Movie 8

This movie shows that the altered spindle orientation results in the formation of basal polar lobes (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 2661 kb)

Supplementary Movie 9

This movie shows that polarity-induced furrow initiation precedes spindle-induced furrow initiation (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 375 kb)

Supplementary Movie 10

This movie shows that pins are required for polarity-induced furrow formation during symmetric cell divisions (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 419 kb)

Supplementary Movie 11

This move shows that Basal Myosin localization is independent of spindle symmetry (see Supplementary Information file for full legend). (MOV 1497 kb)

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Cabernard, C., Prehoda, K. & Doe, C. A spindle-independent cleavage furrow positioning pathway. Nature 467, 91–94 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09334

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