Dynamics of the cytokinetic ring during cell division

The contraction of the cytokinetic ring during cell division leads to the physical partitioning of a cell into two daughter cells. This contraction involves flows of actin filaments and myosin motors in the growing membrane interface that causes this separation. Within a continuum gel
theory framework, we explore the coupled dynamics of the flow and the degree of alignment in the acto-myosin network (the order parameter). We find that numerical solutions of the coupled equations are close to the exact results obtained with analytic approximations [1]. The results are also consistent with experimental observations [2,3] on the closure rate of the ring. Our theory [1] also captures how the effective tension in the ring decreases with its radius. We show how this effect significantly slows down the contraction process at later times.

[1] Chatterjee Mainak, et al. arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.13441 (2020).
[2] A. Zumdieck, et al. PLoS ONE 2(8): e696 (2007).
[3] A. S. Maddox, et al. Developmental cell 12, 827 (2007).