Figure 2. G573S expression and cell survival are partially rescued by ruthenium red but not by lowering extracellular Ca²⁺.

T-Rex293 cells were transfected with GFP-V3WT or GFP-V3G573S as in figure 1 and fusion protein expression was induced by 20 ng/ml doxycycline for 7 hrs. A, phase contrast (middle) and fluorescence (sides) images of cells untreated or treated with 10 μM ruthenium red (RR) for the duration of doxcycline induction. Note, the larger number of normal looking cells and more prominent fluorescence signal in the RR-treated than untreated group. B, images of cells with GFP-V3WT (left) and GFP-V3G573S (right) expression induced in a low Ca²⁺ medium for 8 hrs. Severe cell death and low fusion protein expression are still obvious with the mutant. For both conditions shown in A and B, GFP-V3G573C had a similar effect as GFP-V3G573S (not shown). Fluorescence images were taken using the same exposure time, gain and other camera settings.