Biochemistry and Cytology of Cytokinesis

描述（由申请人提供）：胞质分裂是细胞分裂为两个子细胞的过程。当有丝分裂完成时，分裂沟在细胞的中间聚集，并且该沟收缩以将细胞分成相等的两部分。从基本细胞生物学的角度来看，胞质分裂是迷人的，因为它需要细胞骨架和细胞膜系统的协同活动。这也是一个可能成为抗癌治疗靶点的过程。我们对两个问题感兴趣：细胞如何将卵裂沟精确地定位在其中间，以及卵裂沟如何组装？我们将通过生物化学、显微镜和添加药物的组合来解决这些问题。我们将继续对两种有趣的卵裂沟蛋白进行生化分析，一种是我们发现的苯胺醛，另一种是我们发现的可以组装成细丝的GT3蛋白家族septins。我们想知道这些蛋白质在细胞中的作用以及它们如何相互影响。我们将研究新的膜是如何利用青蛙卵提取物靶向卵裂沟和苯胺在这个过程中的作用。在细胞中心形成一条沟取决于提供位置信息的微管。我们将探讨与胞质分裂相关的微管在细胞中是如何组织的，以及它们使用什么机制将苯胺和肌球蛋白II靶向细胞中心，在那里建立一个沟槽。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cytokinesis is the process by which a cell divides into two daughters. When mitosis is complete, a cleavage furrow assembles in the middle of the cell and this furrow constricts to divide the cell into two equal parts. Cytokinesis is fascinating from a basic cell biology perspective, since it requires concerted activity of the cytoskeleton and membrane systems of the cell. It is also a process that could potentially be targeted in anti-cancer therapy. We are interested in two questions: how does the cell position the cleavage furrow exactly in its middle and how does the furrow assemble? We will address these by a combination of biochemistry, microscopy and addition of drugs. We will continue our biochemical analysis of two interesting cleavage furrow proteins, anillin, which we discovered, and septins, a family of GTPase proteins that we showed could assemble into filaments. We want to know what these proteins do in the cell and how they influence each other. We will study how new membrane is targeted to the cleavage furrow using extracts from frog eggs and the role of anillin in this process. Building a furrow at the center of the cell depends on microtubules that provide the positional information. We will probe how the microtubules associated with cytokinesis are organized in the cell and what mechanisms they use to target anillin and myosin II to the center of the cell to build a furrow there.