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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2010 Feb;11(2):149. doi: 10.1038/nrm2834

Figure 1. Strategies for cytokinesis used by plant, fission yeast and animal cells.

Figure 1

Plants, amoebas, fungi and animals all arose from a common ancestor, branching off as shown. In plants, the cell division plane is selected by the nucleus specifying the position of a preprophase band of microtubules around the equator. Plants lack key proteins to make a contractile ring, so they depend on membrane fusion to separate the two daughter cells. Phragmoplast microtubules transport Golgi vesicles to the midplane to form the new plasma membrane. Amoebas divide much like animal cells and are not illustrated. In fission yeast, the cell division plane is selected by the nucleus specifying the position of nodes around the equator, whereas in animals, spindle and astral microtubules specify the position of the contractile ring. Fission yeast and animal cells assemble a contractile ring of actin filaments and myosin II around the equator of the cell between the chromosomes, which are separated by microtubules of the mitotic apparatus. The ring constricts and the daughter cells separate by membrane fusion. See also Fig. 2 for more details on the process in fission yeast.