Dividing cells need to coordinate the separation of chromosomes with the formation of a cleavage plane. There is evidence that microtubule bundles in the interzone region of the anaphase spindle somehow control both the location and the assembly of the cleavage furrow [1-3]. A microtubule motor that concentrates in the interzone, MKLP1, has previously been implicated in the assembly of both the...

Signaling by the centrosomal asters and spindle midzone coordinately directs formation of the cytokinetic furrow. Here, we explore the contribution of the asters by analyzing the consequences of altering interaster distance during the first cytokinesis of the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo. Delaying aster separation, by using TPXL-1 depletion to shorten the metaphase spindle, leads to a correspo...

Radixin is a barbed end-capping actin-modulating protein which was first identified in isolated cell-to-cell adherens junctions from rat liver (Tsukita, Sa., Y. Hieda, and Sh. Tsukita, 1989. J. Cell Biol. 108:2369-2382). In the present study, we have analyzed the distribution of radixin in dividing cells. For this purpose, an mAb specific for radixin was obtained using chicken gizzard radixin a...

The initiation of furrow formation is disrupted when microtubule elongation to the cell surface is inhibited either by promoting microtubule disassembly with hydrostatic pressure or by stabilizing the mitotic astral microtubules with taxol. The pressure studies confirmed Rappaport's earlier observation that stimulation of furrow formation is produced by a pair of asters and does not require chr...

Events in the morphogenetic furrow set the stage for all subsequent compound eye development in Drosophila. The periodic pattern of the adult eye begins in the furrow with the spaced initiation of ommatidial rudiments, the preclusters. A wave of mitosis closely follows the furrow. A cell-by-cell analysis reveals details of these events. Early stages of ommatidial assembly can be resolved using ...