PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Inna Goliand AU - Tali Dadosh AU - Natalie Elia TI - Resolving ESCRT-III spirals at the intercellular bridge of dividing cells using 3D STORM imaging AID - 10.1101/194613 DP - 2017 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 194613 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/09/27/194613.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/09/27/194613.full AB - The ESCRT machinery mediates membrane fission in a verity of processes in cells. According to the proposed mechanism, ESCRT-III proteins drive membrane fission by assembling into helical filaments on membranes. Yet, ESCRT-III filaments have never been directly visualized in a cellular process that utilizes this machinery for its function. Here we used 3D STORM imaging of endogenous ESCRT-III component IST1, to describe the structural organization of ESCRT-III during mammalian cytokinetic abscission. Using this approach, ESCRT-III ring and spiral assemblies were resolved at the intercellular tube of cells undergoing abscission. Characterization of these structures indicates the ESCRT-III helical filament undergoes remodeling during abscission. This work provides the first evidence that ESCRT-III proteins assemble into helical filaments in physiological context, indicating that the ESCRT-III machine indeed derives its contractile activity through spiral assemblies. Moreover, it provides new structural information on ESCRT-III filaments, which raise new mechanistic scenarios for ESCRT driven membrane constriction.