Myosin‐10 independently influences mitotic spindle structure and mitotic progression

Abstract

The iconic bipolar structure of the mitotic spindle is of extreme importance to proper spindle function. At best, spindle abnormalities result in a delayed mitosis, while worse outcomes include cell death or disease. Recent work has uncovered an important role for the actin-based motor protein myosin-10 in the regulation of spindle structure and function. Here we examine the contribution of the myosin tail homology 4 (MyTH4) domain of the myosin-10 tail to the protein's spindle functions. The MyTH4 domain is known to mediate binding to microtubules and we verify the suspicion that this domain contributes to myosin-10's close association with the spindle. More surprisingly, our data demonstrate that some but not all of myosin-10's spindle functions require microtubule binding. In particular, myosin-10's contribution to spindle pole integrity requires microtubule binding, whereas its contribution to normal mitotic progression does not. This is demonstrated by the observation that dominant negative expression of the wild-type MyTH4 domain produces multipolar spindles and an increased mitotic index, whereas overexpression of a version of the MyTH4 domain harboring point mutations that abrogate microtubule binding results in only the mitotic index phenotype. Our data suggest that myosin-10 helps to control the metaphase to anaphase transition in cells independent of microtubule binding. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.