ArticlePLoS biology2014
An equatorial contractile mechanism drives cell elongation but not cell division.
Article in PLoS biology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cell differentiation can underpin the reproducibility of morphogenesis.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Actomyosin contractility drives apical polarization and membrane transport during tubulogenesis.Research square · 2026Article
- Development of cell labeling and gene editing tools in urochordateMarine life science & technology · 2025Article
- Physics of notochord tube expansion in ascidians.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The ion channel Anoctamin 10/TMEM16K coordinates organ morphogenesis across scales in the urochordate notochord.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- SimuCell3D: three-dimensional simulation of tissue mechanics with cell polarization.Nature computational science · 2024Article
- Article
- Genome-wide functional analysis reveals key roles for kinesins in the mammalian and mosquito stages of the malaria parasite life cycle.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- High abundance of CDC45 inhibits cell proliferation through elevation of HSPA6.Cell proliferation · 2022Article
- Intercellular water exchanges trigger soliton-like waves in multicellular systems.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Filament-guided filament assembly provides structural memory of filament alignment during cytokinesis.Developmental cell · 2021Article
- Polarity Establishment and Maintenance in Ascidian Notochord.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2020Review
- The notochord gene regulatory network in chordate evolution: Conservation and divergence from Ciona to vertebrates.Current topics in developmental biology · 2020Review
- 14-3-3εa directs the pulsatile transport of basal factors toward the apical domain for lumen growth in tubulogenesis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Dynamic interplay of cell fate, polarity and force generation in ascidian embryos.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2018Review
- Transgenic Techniques for Investigating Cell Biology During Development.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2018Review
- Flow-dependent myosin recruitment during Drosophila cellularization requires zygotic dunk activity.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2016Article
- Dynamics of cell polarity in tissue morphogenesis: a comparative view from Drosophila and Ciona.F1000Research · 2016Review
- p114RhoGEF governs cell motility and lumen formation during tubulogenesis through a ROCK-myosin-II pathway.Journal of cell science · 2015Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cell shape changes and proliferation are two fundamental strategies for morphogenesis in animal development. During embryogenesis of the simple chordate Ciona intestinalis, elongation of individual notochord cells constitutes a crucial stage of notochord growth, which contributes to the establishment of the larval body plan. The mechanism of cell elongation is elusive. Here we show that although notochord cells do not divide, they use a cytokinesis-like actomyosin mechanism to drive cell elongation. The actomyosin network forming at the equator of each notochord cell includes phosphorylated myosin regulatory light chain, α-actinin, cofilin, tropomyosin, and talin. We demonstrate that cofilin and α-actinin are two crucial components for cell elongation. Cortical flow contributes to the assembly of the actomyosin ring. Similar to cytokinetic cells, membrane blebs that cause local contractions form at the basal cortex next to the equator and participate in force generation. We present a model in which the cooperation of equatorial actomyosin ring-based constriction and bleb-associated contractions at the basal cortex promotes cell elongation. Our results demonstrate that a cytokinesis-like contractile mechanism is co-opted in a completely different developmental scenario to achieve cell shape change instead of cell division. We discuss the occurrences of actomyosin rings aside from cell division, suggesting that circumferential contraction is an evolutionally conserved mechanism to drive cell or tissue elongation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.