Cytokinetic diversity in mammalian cells is revealed by the characterization of endogenous anillin, Ect2 and RhoA

Cytokinesis is required to physically separate the daughter cells at the end of mitosis. This crucial process requires the assembly and ingression of an actomyosin ring, which must occur with high fidelity to avoid aneuploidy and cell fate changes. Most of our knowledge of mammalian cytokinesis was generated using over-expressed transgenes in HeLa cells. Over-expression can introduce artefacts, while HeLa are cancerous human cells that have lost their epithelial identity, and the mechanisms controlling cytokinesis in these cells could be vastly different from other cell types. Here, we tagged endogenous anillin, Ect2 and RhoA with mNeonGreen and characterized their localization during cytokinesis for the first time in live human cells. Comparing anillin localization in multiple cell types revealed cytokinetic diversity with differences in the duration and symmetry of ring closure, and the timing of cortical recruitment. Our findings show that the breadth of anillin correlates with the rate of ring closure, and support models where cell size or ploidy affects the cortical organization, and intrinsic mechanisms control the symmetry of ring closure. This work highlights the need to study cytokinesis in more diverse cell types, which will be facilitated by the reagents generated for this study.

Automated summary

Cytokinesis is a crucial process that requires the assembly and ingression of an actomyosin ring to physically separate daughter cells. By studying the localization of key molecules during cytokinesis in live human cells, differences in cytokinetic diversity were observed among different cell types.