The continuted presence of Boi1 (red) at the bud neck in midzone mutant cells at telophase prevents the completion of cytokinesis.

BARRAL/ELSEVIER

Caren Norden, Manuel Mendoza, Yves Barral (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland), and colleagues have found a new checkpoint in yeast cell division. Cytokinesis, they show, is delayed until chromosomes are out of the way, thanks to a pathway that monitors the spindle midzone.

If cytokinesis were to occur too soon, chromatids still lingering in the spindle midzone might get cut. Cytokinesis fails in animal cells with spindle midzone defects, and Barral's group now shows that the same is true for budding yeast. Although the actomyosin ring contracted normally, final membrane resolution (called abscission) was delayed in several mutants with altered midzone structure.

The midzone appears to be important for abscission perhaps by acting as a sink to inactivate the yeast Aurora kinase Ipl1. Although Ipl1...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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