Redistribution of microfilament-associated proteins during the formation of focal contacts and adhesions in chick fibroblasts.

The roles of the microfilament-associated proteins vinculin, alpha-actinin, myosin and filamin have been studied by immunofluorescence and double fluorescence in conjunction with interference reflection microscopy (IRM), during the development of focal contacts and focal adhesions in a chick fibroblast system which initially has no such adhesion specializations but then develops them sequentially over a 48 h period. Without exception, all focal contacts and focal adhesions contain both vinculin and alpha-actinin at every stage that we can detect by IRM or by double staining to reveal the associated microfilament bundles. Indeed the appearance of small bodies containing alpha-actinin and vinculin is shown to precede focal contact formation in our model system and such structures (not visible by IRM) are proposed to be the precursors of focal contacts and adhesions. Myosin and filamin are distributed generally with some reticular patterning in the early motile cells which lack the focal specializations, but as focal contacts and adhesions form these proteins become progressively recruited into the associated microfilament bundles. Only then do we see the marked depletion that has been reported earlier of diffusely distributed myosin and filamin in the leading lamella. Although this is not initially associated with any change in the motile status of the cells, the recruitment of these microfilament-associated proteins into stress fibres is proposed to occur in preparation for anchorage and bracing of cells to the substratum when they later become stationary.