Actin-based myosin XXI (13) molecular motor is involved in early phase of Leishmania cytokinesis

Leishmania genome encodes for two isoforms of myosin, but only Myosin XXI (Myo21), which is a novel form of myosin in that it contains two ubiquitin associated-like (UBA) domains towards the end of its tail structure, is expressed in both the promastigote and amastigote forms of this protozoan. Earlier studies have shown that in Leishmania promastigotes Myo21 besides localizing throughout the cell body and flagellum, it is prominently localized to the base of the flagellum. It has further been shown that this protein in the promastigotes plays an important role in regulating the cell morphology, motility, flagellum dynamics, growth and intracellular trafficking, As Myo21 depletion has been shown to result in reduced cell growth in culture, we considered it of interest to investigate whether the observed effect of Myo21 on the cell growth is mediated through its possible role in Leishmania cell division cycle. For this, we prepared heterozygous Myo21 mutants of Leishmania promastigotes (Myo21+/-cells) and then analyzed their morphology, growth and cell division cycle, using wild type Leishmania promastigotes (Myo21+/+ cells) as control. The cell division cycle was analyzed by employing flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that the G2/M to G1 phase transition in Myo21+/- cell is significantly delayed, as compared to Myo21+/+ cells. Immunofluorescence confocal microscopic analysis indicated that Myo21+/- cells encountered a significant delay in initiation of cytokinesis, which was mainly due to delay in the flagellar pocket division. Further analysis revealed that actin-based Myo21 motor is essentially required in the initiation phase of Leishmania cytokinesis.