Research Asst Prof Michael Werner & former student Katie Rehain Bell publish in MBoC

Katie and Michael found that the negative regulators of contractility Katie characterized in the stable syncytial germline are also enriched on the dynamic cytokinetic ring. In this paper, they report how this kinase-containing heterodimeric complex is recruited to the cytokinetic ring downstream of the RhoA effector anillin. The dimer (GCK-1/CCM-3) promotes levels of the RhoA GAP RGA-3/4 in the cytokinetic ring, limiting RhoA activity and contractility. Interestingly, GCK-1/CCM-3 also reduce RhoA levels in cortical patches during prophase pulsed contractility, but do not change the period of RhoA pulsing. Check it out!