Abstract

In the early divergent protozoan Trypanosoma brucei, cytokinesis happens from the anterior cell tip of the newflagellum daughter of a dividing biflagellated cell toward the developing posterior end of the old-flagellum daughter. Along the preformed cell division fold, the cleavage furrow ingresses unidirectionally. It is controlled by an orphan kinesin known as kinesin localized to the ingressing furrow (KLIF), which localizes to the leading edge of the furrow. It is unclear how KLIF regulates furrow ingression and whether it interacts or collaborates with other cytokinesis regulatory proteins to encourage furrow ingression. In this study, we examined KLIF’s functions in cleavage furrow ingression and discovered a group of cytoskeletal proteins linked to KLIF that are crucial regulators of cytokinesis.