Fig. 9. The potential of the DP tail to become codistributed with the desmin network is affected by sequences contained within the rod and tail domains of desmin. Intermediate-filament-free SW13 cells were transiently co-transfected with the cDNAs encoding DP BC^S2849G, Myc-tagged at the N-terminus (B,D,F) and tailless desmin (DesminT) (A,C), or desmin I451M (E). Although in most transfected cells, DP and tailless desmin were found together in spot-like and large cytoplasmic aggregates (C,D), in 5% of the transfected cells the recombinant DP-BC^S2849G was found diffusely distributed in the cytoplasm without obvious colocalization with tailless desmin (A,B). In a few cells expressing both desmin^I451M and DP-BC^S2849G, DP-BC^S2849G did not become coaligned with desmin^I451M, but retained a cytoplasmic distribution (E,F). Bar, 20 µm.