FIG. 5.

Plasma membrane association of the M protein is not affected by microtubule depolymerization. BHK-21 cells were left untreated (A, B, and C) or treated with 10 μg per ml of NOC (D, E, and F) for 3 h prior to infection with VSV-PeGFP-ΔM-Mtc at an MOI of 10. The cells were incubated in medium lacking or containing NOC for 4 h. The infected cells were then treated with ReAsH for 30 min. After being washed, the cells were fixed and examined for epifluorescence under a fluorescence confocal microscope. NOC (-), NOC-untreated cells; NOC (+), NOC-treated cells. Merged PeGFP (A and D) and ReAsH (B and E) fluorescent images of cells are shown in the right panels (C and F). (G) Quantitation of the amount of Mtc accumulated in the plasma membranes of infected cells in the presence (+) or absence (−) of NOC. Total fluorescence intensities (in arbitrary units) were determined as described in Materials and Methods and then plotted as histograms, with error bars indicating standard deviations. The P value for the difference was >0.05.