Early zygotic gene product Dunk interacts with anillin to regulate Myosin II during Drosophila cleavage

), a conserved scaffolding protein in cytokinesis, as the primary binding partner of Dunk. Dunk colocalizes with anillin and regulates its cortical localization during the formation of cleavage furrows, while the localization of Dunk is independent of anillin. Furthermore, Dunk genetically interacts with anillin to regulate the basal myosin array during cellularization. Similar to Dunk, anillin colocalizes with myosin since the very early stage of cellularization and is required for myosin retention at the basal array, before the well-documented function of anillin in regulating cytokinetic ring assembly. Based on these results, we propose that Dunk regulates myosin recruitment and spatial organization during early cellularization by interacting with and regulating anillin.