Calcium spikes accompany cleavage furrow ingression and cell separation during fission yeast cytokinesis

The role of calcium signaling in cytokinesis has long remained ambiguous. Past studies of embryonic cell division discovered that calcium concentration increases transiently at the division plane just before cleavage furrow ingression, suggesting that these calcium transients could trigger contractile ring constriction. However, such calcium transients have only been found in animal embryos and their function remains controversial. We explored cytokinetic calcium transients in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe by adopting GCaMP, a genetically encoded calcium indicator, to determine the intracellular calcium level of this model organism. We validated GCaMP as a highly sensitive calcium reporter in fission yeast, allowing us to capture calcium transients triggered by osmotic shocks. We identified a correlation between the intracellular calcium level and cell division, consistent with the existence of calcium transients during cytokinesis. Using time-lapse microscopy and quantitative image analysis, we discovered calcium spikes both at the start of cleavage furrow ingression and the end of cell separation. Inhibition of these calcium spikes slowed the furrow ingression and led to frequent lysis of daughter cells. We conclude that like the larger animal embryos, fission yeast triggers calcium transients that may play an important role in cytokinesis (197).