Closed mitosis requires local disassembly of the nuclear envelope

Authors: Gautam Dey, Siân Culley, Scott Curran, Uwe Schmidt, Ricardo Henriques, Wanda Kukulski, Buzz Baum
Technologies: CARE, NanoJ, NanoJ-SRRF and Nuclear-Pores as references
Paper published in Nature, August 2020
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK London

The manuscript by Dey et al. (2020) explores the mechanism of nuclear division in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, a fission yeast that undergoes closed mitosis. Using genetics, live-cell imaging, and electron tomography, the researchers reveal that nuclear fission is accomplished through local disassembly of nuclear pores within the bridge connecting segregating daughter nuclei. They identify Les1, a protein localized to the inner nuclear envelope, which restricts nuclear envelope breakdown to the bridge midzone to prevent material leakage from daughter nuclei. The study also sheds light on the unexpected conservation of nuclear remodeling mechanisms across diverse eukaryotes.