Cytokinesis microtubule organisers at a glance

Cytokinesis is a fundamental step of cell proliferation, and its high-fidelity completion is crucial for stable maintenance of the genome (Ganem et al., 2007; Lacroix and Maddox, 2012). Anti-parallel microtubule bundle structures such as the central spindle and the midbody play various important roles throughout cytokinesis, from positioning of cleavage furrow to final separation of the two daughter cells (Barr and Gruneberg, 2007; Glotzer, 2009; Fededa and Gerlich, 2012). Although a large number of different factors that are important for abscission, including membrane trafficking machinery, localise to the midzone during cytokinesis (Caballe and Martin-Serrano, 2011; Guizetti and Gerlich, 2010; Neto and Gould, 2011), here we focus on the current understanding of protein–protein interactions between microtubule organisers and their regulators that form cytokinetic microtubule structures.