Fig. 3. Actin polymerization at FAs is decreased by displacing zyxin from FAs. Endogenous zyxin was displaced from FAs by expressing the isolated LIM region of human zyxin. (A-F) Alexa568-actin (B,D,F) was introduced into cells transfected with ZYX_LIM-GFP (A), GFP (C) or zyxin-GFP (E). Asterisks indicate the cells expressing the exogenous molecules. Large amounts of the exogenous molecules in the cytoplasm were extracted from the cells during the introduction of Alexa568-actin in the presence of digitonin, but ZYX_LIM-GFP and GFP in nuclei (# in A,C) were retained. Scale bar: 20 µm. (G,H) The averaged fluorescence intensity of Alexa568-actin at FAs was plotted against that of ZYX_LIM-GFP (G) or zyxin-GFP (H) for each cell. Values were normalized with respect to the maximum value on each axis. CC, correlation coefficient. (I) Correlation coefficients of average fluorescence-intensity plots of Alexa568-actin vs ZYX_LIM-GFP (black bars) or zyxin-GFP (gray bars). Each bar represents the mean ± s.d. of four independent experiments. ^*P<0.05 (t-test).