Staining with anti-anillin (Antigen 8) antibody showed the anillin localizes to the nucleus during interphase and to the contractile ring during cytokinesis.

[7] These observations agree with further research that found anillin in high concentrations near the cleavage furrow coinciding with RhoA, a key regulator of contractile ring formation.

Anillins are also enriched at other actomyosin rings, most significantly, those at the leading edge of the Drosophila embryo during cellularization.

[8] The human anillin cDNA, located on Chr7, encodes a 1,125–amino acid protein with a predicted molecular mass of 124 kD and a pI of 8.1.

Mid1p has been characterized as a key regulator in cytokinesis, responsible for arranging contractile ring assembly and positioning.

[13] Anillins have also been shown to organize the actomyosin cytoskeleton into syncytial structures observed in Drosophila embryos or C. elegans gonads.

ANI-1 is required for cortical ruffling, pseudocleavage, and all contractile events that occur in embryos prior to mitosis.

ANI-2 ensures oocytes do not disconnect prematurely from the rachis, thereby leading to the generation of embryos of varying sizes.

It is hypothesized that by regulating actin bundling, anillin increases the efficiency of actomyosin contractility during cell division.

[18] Depletion of anillin in Drosophila and humans leads to changes in the spatial and temporal stability of myosin during cytokinesis.

[19] In C. elegans, ANI-1 organizes myosin into foci during cytokinesis and establishment of polarity, whereas, ANI-2 is a requirement for the maintenance of myosin-rich contractile lining of oogenic gonads.

Depletion of anillin in Drosophila spermatocytes greatly reduces the localization of Rho and F-actin to equatorial regions.

It has been observed that anillin proteolysis is triggered after mitotic exit by the Anaphase Promoting Complex (APC).

In recent years, the expression levels of anillin have been shown to correlate to the metastatic potential of human tumours.

Increasing the expression of anillin also led to further invasiveness and migration of numerous colorectal cancer cell lines.