Myosin-II bipolar thick filament formation is highly regulated in cells and is required for cytokinesis as a key component of the contractile ring. The long-term objective of this application is to understand in molecular terms the regulation of myosin-II bipolar thick filament assembly, and to elucidate the spatial and temporal control of contractile ring formation, maintenance, and dissolution during cell division. D. discoideum has a number of advantages for the study of cytokinesis, and will be used as the model system. The research plan is designed to answer the following questions. How does myosin-II heavy chain phosphorylation control the assembly of myosin-II bipolar thick filaments at the molecular level? How are the three known myosin-II heavy chain kinases organized during the cell cycle, and how does that organization relate to the dynamics of the myosin-IIcontaining contractile ring? What are the other essential proteins involved in the establishment, maintenance and dissolution of the myosin-II-containing contractile ring, and what are their cellular organizations and dynamics during cell division? Molecular genetic approaches will be used to create directed mutations in the myosin-II tail domain, to test specific hypotheses of the mechanism of regulation of thick filament assembly. These mutant myosin-IIs will be transformed into Dictyostelium myosin-II null cells to test for rescue of cytokinesis in suspension. Fragments of the myosin-II tail will be analyzed in vitro by biochemical and biophysical methods to examine phosphorylation-dependent changes in conformational states, and to characterize the kinetics and thermodynamics of the assembly process. Several approaches will be used to identify proteins that are crucial players in myosin-II-dependent cytokinesis. cDNA complementation will define suppressors of myosin-II -impaired mutant strains of Dictyostelium. Proteins that bind directly to the myosin-II tail domain will be pursued by affinity column chromatography. Finally, Dictyostelium genes homologous to cytokinesis-related genes in other organisms will be searched for. All identified new proteins will be characterized in vitro and in vivo. The spatial and temporal organization of proteins of the contractile ring and of proteins involved in its formation will be followed in live cells by fluorescent tagging ans visualization in vivo using computer-linked, low-light-level imaging. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy allows visualization of single myosin-II bipolar thick filaments in the cell cortex just beneath the cell membrane. This method will allow dual visualization of myosin-II and other fluorescent-labeled cytokinesis-related proteins.
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