Colocalization of TD-60 and INCENP throughout G2 and mitosis: evidence for their possible interaction in signalling cytokinesis

TD-60 and INCENP are two members of the chromosome passenger protein family, and each has been suggested to play a role in the control of cytokinesis. Here we demonstrate by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy that TD-60 and INCENP distribute identically throughout the cell cycle. Both appear coordinately in G2-phase nuclei and become concentrated at centromeres during prophase. TD-60 and INCENP both then leave the chromosome together during anaphase and redistribute to the spindle midzone, as do other chromosome passenger proteins, and traverse the entire equatorial diameter from cortex to cortex. By image overlay and pixel count analysis we show that TD-60 and INCENP are distinct among known chromosome passenger proteins in extending beyond the spindle to the cortex. Further, we show that the cytokinesis-associated protein kinase AIM-1 also shares this distribution property. We suggest that this redistribution is required to signal cytokinesis. TD-60 and INCENP also show identical localization in cells that exit mitosis in the presence of dihydrocytochalasin B (DCB), an inhibitor of actin assembly. Such cells can resume cleavage upon removal of DCB and in a recovery subpopulation that cleaves only on one side, these proteins both colocalize to the cortex only where a cleavage furrow forms. Given the coincident distribution of TD-60 and INCENP during both interphase and mitosis, we suggest that these proteins may cooperate, perhaps within a protein complex, in signalling cytokinesis. Such a mechanism, using chromosome passenger proteins, may ensure that cytokinesis occurs only between the separated chromatids, and only after they have segregated. Received: 12 August 1998; in revised form: 1 September 1998 / Accepted: 2 September 1998