meiotic actomyosin contractile ring

GO:0110086 · Cytoskeleton · Filament · Proposed

A cytoskeletal structure composed of actin filaments, myosin, and myosin-associated proteins that forms beneath the plasma membrane of many cells, including animal cells and yeast cells, in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the meiotic spindle, i.e. the cell division plane. Ring contraction is associated with centripetal growth of the membrane that divides the cytoplasm of the two future daughter cells. In animal cells, the meiotic contractile ring is located inside the plasma membrane at the location of the cleavage furrow. In fungal cells, the meiotic contractile ring forms beneath the plasma membrane of the prospore envelope in preparation for completing cytokinesis. [GO:0110086]

UniProt location names: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0. Reference label and route sources.

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
actin filaments	Protein	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			UNKNOWN	Filamentous actin constituent of the meiotic cytokinetic contractile ring. `GO:0110086` GO:0110086 defines the meiotic actomyosin contractile ring as composed of actin filaments, myosin, and myosin-associated proteins. `DOI:10.1242/jcs.jcs091561` Yan and Balasubramanian 2012 characterized the F-actin-containing meiotic actin ring in fission yeast.
myosin proteins	Protein	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			UNKNOWN	Myosin constituent of the meiotic actomyosin ring that forms at the cytokinetic division plane. `GO:0110086` GO:0110086 defines the meiotic actomyosin contractile ring as composed of actin filaments, myosin, and myosin-associated proteins.

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:4896 Schizosaccharomyces pombe — COMMON: Fission yeast assembles meiotic actin ring structures during meiosis II sporulation. [DOI:10.1242/jcs.jcs091561]

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:4896 Schizosaccharomyces pombe — Fission-yeast meiotic model in which the MeiAR expands during early meiosis II and closes during forespore membrane assembly. [DOI:10.1242/jcs.jcs091561]

Functions

meiotic actomyosin cytokinesis — The meiotic actomyosin contractile ring forms at the division plane and constricts with membrane ingrowth during meiotic cytokinesis.
- GO:0110086 GO:0110086 defines the ring by its meiotic cytokinesis location and association with division-plane membrane ingrowth.
- DOI:10.1242/jcs.jcs091561 Yan and Balasubramanian 2012 followed fission-yeast meiotic actin ring expansion and closure during forespore membrane assembly.

Mechanism graphs

Meiotic actomyosin-ring topology (ASSEMBLY)

Actin filaments and myosin form the meiotic actomyosin contractile ring.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
actin filaments	contributes to	meiotic actomyosin contractile ring	`GO:0110086` GO:0110086 defines the meiotic ring as an actin-containing cytoskeletal structure.
myosin proteins	contributes to	meiotic actomyosin contractile ring	`GO:0110086` GO:0110086 defines the meiotic ring as containing myosin.

Discussions

INTERPRETATION (RESOLVED): Keep the meiotic actomyosin contractile ring distinct from the generic actomyosin ring and from mitotic or prospore-localized contractile rings. GO:0110086 denotes the meiotic subtype of the broader actomyosin contractile ring class. GO:0110085 denotes the mitotic sibling class and GO:0032157 denotes the prospore-localized child structure.
CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact source-neutral family groundings and myosin-associated protein boundaries for the meiotic actomyosin contractile ring. GO:0110086 includes myosin-associated proteins in the ring definition, while the GO-cited fission-yeast MeiAR paper emphasizes F-actin, Arp2/3, For3, Meu14, and leading-edge topology. This first meiotic subtype record keeps only broad actin and myosin constituents until accessory constituent versus associated-machinery boundaries are reviewed explicitly.

Evidence

GO:0110086 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the meiotic actomyosin contractile ring.
GO:0005826 Gene Ontology cellular-component parent for actomyosin contractile rings.
GO:0110085 Gene Ontology cellular-component sibling term for mitotic actomyosin contractile rings.
GO:0032157 Gene Ontology cellular-component child term for the localized prospore contractile ring.
DOI:10.1242/jcs.jcs091561 Yan and Balasubramanian 2012, 'Meiotic actin rings are essential for proper sporulation in fission yeast', Journal of Cell Science.
DOI:10.1242/jcs.113316 The publisher correction to Yan and Balasubramanian 2012 identifies 10.1242/jcs.jcs091561 as the correct article DOI, replacing the originally printed 10.1242/jcs.091561. This is a publication-identifier correction, not a change to the biological results.

Curation history

2026-09-29T22:46:54Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-29T22:47:58Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added actomyosin-ring parentage, reviewed-label-only actin and myosin constituents, fission-yeast meiotic actin-ring evidence, a meiotic cytokinesis function, GO/DOI evidence, a nonmechanistic topology graph, and boundary and component-grounding discussions.
2026-10-12T02:39:11Z codex · ADDRESS_SAVED_REVIEW — Addressed #2279: Use the publisher-corrected MeiAR DOI and preserve erratum provenance.

Source: data/structures/cytoskeleton/meiotic_actomyosin_contractile_ring.yaml