Using the four-cell C. elegans embryo to study contractile ring dynamics during cytokinesis

Abstract

Cytokinesis is the process that completes cell division by partitioning the contents of the mother cell between the two daughter cells. It involves the highly regulated assembly and constriction of an actomyosin contractile ring, whose function is to pinch the mother cell in two. Research on the contractile ring has particularly focused on the signaling mechanisms that dictate when and where the ring is formed. In vivo studies of ring constriction are however scarce and its mechanistic understanding is therefore limited. Here we present several experimental approaches for monitoring ring constriction in vivo, using the four-cell C. elegans embryo as model. These approaches allow for the ring to be perturbed only after it forms and include the combination of live imaging with acute drug treatments, temperature-sensitive mutants and rapid temperature shifts, as well as laser microsurgery. In addition, we explain how to combine these with RNAi-mediated depletion of specific components of the cytokinetic machinery.