The project group of Kaisa Haglund in Harald Stenmark’s group at the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Institute for Cancer Research and Centre for Cancer Biomedicine and colleagues recently published an article in PLOS Genetics (journal impact factor 8.2) on the molecular control of the final step of cell division, abscission, in stem cells in vivo.
Abscission involves the cleavage of the intercellular bridge connecting the two daughter cells. Fidelity in abscission is important to prevent the formation of cells with abnormal chromosome numbers and aneuploidy, features that are commonly detected in cancer cells. The article uncovers molecules that promote abscission during stem cell division in the female germline in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.
Specifically, the study shows that the scaffold protein ALIX and a component of endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT)-III act together to mediate abscission in Drosophila female germline stem cells. Recent studies have elucidated mechanisms of abscission in cultured cells, but how this process is regulated in the context of living tissues is not well understood.
The article thus provides novel knowledge about the molecular mechanisms mediating fidelity in abscission in a multi-cellular tissue, evidence of an evolutionarily conserved function of the ALIX/ESCRT-III pathway in abscission and a basis for future studies of abscission and stem cell biology in vivo.
ALIX and ESCRT-III Coordinately Control Cytokinetic Abscission during Germline Stem Cell Division In Vivo.