Regulation of cytokinesis by membrane trafficking involving small GTPases and the ESCRT machinery

AbstractDuring cell division, cells undergo membrane remodeling to achieve changes in their size and shape. In addition, cell division entails local delivery and retrieval of membranes and specific proteins as well as remodeling of cytoskeletons, in particular, upon cytokinetic abscission. Accumulating lines of evidence highlight that endocytic membrane removal from and subsequent membrane delivery to the plasma membrane are crucial for the changes in cell size and shape, and that trafficking of vesicles carrying specific proteins to the abscission site participate in local remodeling of membranes and cytoskeletons. Furthermore, the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) machinery has been shown to play crucial roles in cytokinetic abscission. Here, the author briefly overviews membrane-trafficking events early in cell division, and subsequently focus on regulation and functional significance of membrane trafficking involving Rab11 and Arf6 small GTPases in late cytokinesis phases and assembly of the ESCRT machinery in cytokinetic abscission.KeywordsArfcytokinesisESCRTmembrane trafficRabsmall GTPase AcknowledgementsI apologize to all colleagues whose work could not be cited owing to space constraints.Declaration of interestResearch in Nakayama Laboratory was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan [Grant nos. 20058015 and 25113514] and the Japan Society for Promotion of Science [Grant no. 22390013]. The author reports that he has no conflicts of interest.