Figure 7. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching of the division plane at the four-cell stage is consistent with Constriction-Coupled Disassembly with Compression Feedback.

(A) (top) Schematics of an experiment that we performed previously in which a spot was bleached in contractile rings at the four-cell stage (Carvalho et al., 2009). In kymographs of a fixed length region of the arc, the bleached spot narrowed as the ring constricted, yielding a tornado shape. (middle) Image panels and kymograph reproduced from Figure 5 of Carvalho et al. (2009). The top set of panels show a four-cell stage spot bleaching experiment. The region indicated by the arrow was bleached. Time is in seconds after photobleaching. Stills are in pseudocolor with hot-to-cold colors representing high-to-low GFP intensity. Scale bar, 5 μm. Below the images is a representative tornado-shaped kymograph. The time interval between each row of pixels is 5 s. The top row corresponds to the time point before photobleaching. Pixel dimensions are 0.27 × 0.27 μm. These experiments suggested that after its incorporation into the ring, ring myosin does not exchange with myosin in the cytoplasm, and that the ring disassembles in constriction-coupled fashion. (B) In addition to Constriction-Coupled Disassembly, which does not alter the per-unit-length amount of ring myosin, the division plane bleaching experiments that we performed at the one-cell stage suggest that new myosin is delivered into the ring by compression feedback along the axis perpendicular to the ring. (C, D) Schematics in C and D show the predictions of Constriction-Coupled Disassembly Alone and Constriction-Coupled Disassembly with Compression Feedback for spot (C) and division plane (D) bleaching experiments at the four-cell stage. Rather than closing by 50% over 95 s as predicted by Constriction-Coupled Disassembly Alone, the tornados thinned more rapidly, consistent with the prediction of the Constriction-Coupled Disassembly with Compression Feedback model (Carvalho et al., 2009). (D) To test whether Compression Feedback delivers components to the ring at the four-cell stage as well as at the one-cell stage, we monitored recovery after photobleaching the entire contractile arc. Images show a representative bleached embryo (n = 10). The observed recovery pattern was similar to what we observed at the one-cell stage, consistent with the idea that compression feedback contributes to ring component accumulation at both the one- and four-cell stages. Scale bar is 10 µm.

© 2009 Elsevier

Figure 7A (spot bleach at four-cell stage) reproduced with permission from Figure 5 of Carvalho et al. (2009).