Fig. 4. Cadherin-mediated adhesion and myofibril alignment. Aggregates of wild-type (A-C), mutant (D-F) and rescued (G-L) myocytes were double stained for F-actin and either N-cadherin (A), desmosomal protein (D) or E-cadherin (G,J). In wild-type cells, myofibrils run in a linear fashion between neighboring myocytes with colocalization of their ends at regions of cell-cell contact as seen in the merged image (C). Myofibril disorganization is shown for mutant aggregates (E,F) from two independent experiments. In both cultures, the orientation of the myofibrils was random with respect to their neighboring cells (i.e. no continuity across the plasma membrane). E-cadherin-mediated cell adhesion restored proper alignment of the myofibrils between the N-cadherin-deficient myocytes (G-I) and E-cadherin localized to costameric structures on the dorsal surface of the myocyte (J). Bar, 50 µm.