Fission yeast septation

In animal cells cytokinesis relies on the contraction of an actomyosin ring that pulls the plasma membrane to create a cleavage furrow, whose ingression finally divides the mother cell into two daughter cells. Fungal cells are surrounded by a tough and flexible structure called cell wall, which is considered to be the functional equivalent of the extracellular matrix in animal cells. Therefore, in addition to cleavage furrow ingression, fungal cytokinesis also requires the centripetal formation of a septum wall structure that develops between the dividing cells, whose genesis must be strictly coordinated with both the actomyosin ring closure and plasma membrane ingression. Here we briefly review what is known about the septum structure and composition in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the recent progress about the relationship between septum biosynthesis and actomyosin ring constriction, and the importance of the septum and ring in the steady progression of the cleavage furrow.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BFU2010-15641 and BFU2013-39394-P) to PP. JCR was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BIO2012-35372 and BIO2015-69958-P), and the Junta de Castilla y León, Spain (CSI037U14). JCGC was supported by a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.Peer Reviewe