Phases of cortical actomyosin dynamics coupled to the neuroblast polarity cycle

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Abstract

The Par complex dynamically polarizes to the apical cortex of asymmetrically dividing Drosophila neuroblasts where it directs fate determinant segregation. Previously we showed that apically directed cortical movements that polarize the Par complex require F-actin (Oon and Prehoda, 2019). Here we report the discovery of cortical actomyosin dynamics that begin in interphase when the Par complex is cytoplasmic but ultimately become tightly coupled to cortical Par dynamics. Interphase cortical actomyosin dynamics are unoriented and pulsatile but rapidly become sustained and apically-directed in early mitosis when the Par protein aPKC accumulates on the cortex. Apical actomyosin flows drive the coalescence of aPKC into an apical cap that is depolarized in anaphase when the flow reverses direction. Together with the previously characterized role of anaphase flows in specifying daughter cell size asymmetry, our results indicate that multiple phases of cortical actomyosin dynamics regulate asymmetric cell division.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting file

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Chet Huan Oon

Institute of Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Kenneth E Prehoda

Institute of Molecular Biology, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, United States

For correspondence
prehoda@uoregon.edu

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-4214-6158

Funding

National Institutes of Health (GM127092)

Kenneth E Prehoda

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.