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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

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Published on: November 7, 2025
NMY-2 maintains cellular asymmetry and cell boundaries, and promotes a SRC-dependent asymmetric cell division
Ji Liu1, Lisa L Maduzia, Masaki Shirayama
1Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA. Ji.Liu@umassmed.edu
Abstract:
The nonmuscle myosin II NMY-2 is required for cytokinesis as well as for the establishment of zygote asymmetry during embryogenesis in Caenorhabditis elegans. Here we describe two conditional nmy-2 alleles that rapidly and reversibly inactivate the protein. We show that NMY-2 has late-cell-cycle roles in maintaining embryonic asymmetries and is also required for a surprisingly late step in the maintenance of the cytokinesis furrow. Finally, during a signaling-induced asymmetric cell division, NMY-2 is required for SRC-dependent phosphotyrosine signaling and acts in parallel with WNT-signaling to specify endoderm.
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