Arp2/3 involvement in intercellular bridge membrane fluctuations and constriction during neural stem cell divisions

Near the end of animal cell division, the nascent sibling cells remain connected by an intercellular bridge (ICB). The ICB must undergo constriction or thinning before the final step of cytokinetic abscission can occur. The canonical ICB has a central midbody surrounded by flanking regions that are thinned by the migration of nascent siblings away from one another. We studied ICB thinning during the asymmetric divisions of neural stem cells (NSCs), which take place in the complex environment of the Drosophila larval brain. We found that unlike the ICBs of uncrowded cultured cells, NSC ICBs lack flanking arms and instead thin at the midbody region. Super-resolution, full volume imaging revealed fluctuating plasma membrane sheets surrounding the ICB. Inhibition of the branched actin filament nucleator, the Arp2/3 complex, reduces membrane fluctuations and appears to impair ICB thinning. Our results indicate that dynamic, branched actin networks facilitate ICB-associated membrane remodeling and thinning.