Preprint Highlight: Contractile ring mechanosensation and its anillin-dependent tuning during early embryogenesis

Dividing cells assemble and constrict a contractile ring made up of actin and myosin anchored to the cell cortex. How the contractile ring senses the mechanics of the cell cortex is not known.

With asymmetric ring closure in C. elegans as a model, the authors used novel 4D imaging and image segmentation methods to carefully track ring closure over time. They found that ring-directed cortical flow underlies mechanosensation and supports a positive feedback loop between ring closure, cortical flow, and myosin accumulation.

These findings suggest that differences in cell cortex stiffness may determine the orientation and type of cell division–i.e., asymmetric vs. symmetric ring closure. As tissue morphogenesis often relies on specifically oriented cell divisions, defining mechanisms of ring closure is essential for understanding multicellular development.