Nat. Commun. 2021
Anillin generates tens of pico-Newton forces to slide actin filaments
a Schematic representation of the experimental setup. b Time-lapse fluorescence micrographs showing an actin bundle attached between two silica microspheres. The bundle is being stretched as the left microsphere is pulled leftwards by an optical trap. c Typical force time-trace (top) and the force-distance curve (bottom) corresponding to stretching of an anillin-actin filament bundle (experimental data points—magenta). Asymptotic forces of individual stretching steps, calculated by fitting an exponential to the force decays (as shown in d), are indicated by black crosses. These increase hyperbolically with increasing distance between the microspheres, and thus with decreasing overlap length L. The green line represents ~1/L fit to the data. d Temporal response of the construct to stretching and relaxation; the left optical trap is moved 100 nm away from the right trap and then, after ~7 s, moved back to the original position. The temporal profile of the longitudinal position of the left optical trap is shown together with the detected distance between the microspheres (top) and the detected force (bottom). e The detected force increased with decreasing overlap length before the filaments slid apart completely (distance to disconnection = 0). All events longer than six steps are plotted (n = 11 experiments indicated by different colours). Inset, anillin density in the overlap (fluorescence intensity of anillin per unit length of the overlap) at the start and the end of the bundle stretching. Grey boxplots represent raw data, green boxplots represent data after photobleaching correction (see Fig. S2e for the photobleaching estimation) (n = 10 experiments). Corresponding data points overlay the boxplots. f, g Force response of a pre-stretched actin-anillin bundle to a decrease (f) or increase (g) of anillin-GFP concentration. Schematic representation of the experiment (top) and temporal experimental data (bottom). Decrease of the concentration (n = 15 events in 14 experiments), increase of the concentration (n = 15 events in 14 experiments). Green curves are the experimental data, mean temporal profile is shown in magenta. Box and whisker plots show a significant decrease or increase in force between time points 0 and 30 s after a decrease (one-sided Wilcoxon test, p = 0.02) or increase (one-sided Wilcoxon test, p = 0.03) of anillin-GFP concentration. In e–gdata were represented as boxplots. Central marks represent median, top and bottom edges of the box indicate the 75th and 25th percentiles, respectively. Whiskers extend the most extreme points that are not considered outliers. Outliers are marked as grey circles.
Significance
Constriction of the cytokinetic ring, a circular structure of actin filaments, is an essential step during cell division. Mechanical forces driving the constriction are attributed to myosin motor proteins, which slide actin filaments along each other. However, in multiple organisms, ring constriction has been reported to be myosin independent. How actin rings constrict in the absence of motor activity remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that anillin, a nonmotor actin crosslinker, indispensable during cytokinesis, autonomously propels the contractility of actin bundles. Anillin generates contractile forces of tens of pico-Newtons to maximise the lengths of overlaps between bundled actin filaments. The contractility is enhanced by actin disassembly. When multiple actin filaments are arranged into a ring, this contractility leads to ring constriction. Our results indicate that passive actin crosslinkers can substitute for the activity of molecular motors to generate contractile forces in a variety of actin networks, including the cytokinetic ring.
Kučera, O.; Siahaan, V.; Janda, D.; Dijkstra, S. H.; Pilátová, E.; Zatecka, E.; Diez, S.; Braun, M. & Lansky, Z.: Anillin propels myosin-independent constriction of actin rings, Nature Commun. (2021)12:4595 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24474-1