Figure 2.

Effect of caldesmon overexpression on focal adhesions and the actin cytoskeleton of SV80 cells in serum-containing medium. (A and B) cells in control culture; (C–F) cells transfected with full-length caldesmon; (G and H) cells transfected with a truncated variant of caldesmon. Staining was performed with anti-phosphotyrosine (PY) antibody (A, C, and G), with FITC-phalloidin (B and E), and with anti-tag antibody to visualize transfected caldesmon (D, F, and H). (B, D, F, and H) Photographs of the same fields as in A, C, E, and G, respectively. Note that focal adhesions in cells expressing full-length caldesmon are much smaller than those in nontransfected cells or in cells expressing the truncated caldesmon (C compared with A and G). Stress fibers are abundant in nontransfected cells (B) but disappear in cells expressing full-length caldesmon (E and F). Some caldesmon-transfected cells show an increase in the formation of long processes (E and F).