Anillin regulates epithelial cell mechanics by structuring the medial-apical actomyosin network

Cellular forces sculpt organisms during development, while misregulation of cellular mechanics can promote disease. Here, we investigate how the actomyosin scaffold protein anillin contributes to epithelial mechanics in Xenopus laevis embryos. Increased mechanosensitive recruitment of vinculin to cell–cell junctions when anillin is overexpressed suggested that anillin promotes junctional tension. However, junctional laser ablation unexpectedly showed that junctions recoil faster when anillin is depleted and slower when anillin is overexpressed. Unifying these findings, we demonstrate that anillin regulates medial-apical actomyosin. Medial-apical laser ablation supports the conclusion that that tensile forces are stored across the apical surface of epithelial cells, and anillin promotes the tensile forces stored in this network. Finally, we show that anillin’s effects on cellular mechanics impact tissue-wide mechanics. These results reveal anillin as a key regulator of epithelial mechanics and lay the groundwork for future studies on how anillin may contribute to mechanical events in development and disease.