Structure of Vimentin 10-nm Filaments Probed with a Monoclonal Antibody That Recognizes a Common Antigenic Determinant on Vimentin and Tropomyosin

Antibodies prepared to the constituent proteins of 10-nm filaments have revealed, by immunofluorescence, the organization and distribution of these filaments in many cell types (for review, see Lazarides 1980). These methods have further allowed observations of 10-nm filaments during dynamic cellular events such as myogenesis (Bennett et al. 1979; Lazarides 1981) and mitosis (Aubin et al. 1980; Blose 1979, 1981). In studying the structure of 10-nm filaments at the ultrastructural level, several investigators have demonstrated that monospecific polyclonal antibodies can decorate 10-nm filaments in a uniform manner (Schlaepfer 1977; Cabral et al. 1980; Henderson and Weber 1980; Heuser and Kirschner 1980). Willard and Simon (1981) have demonstrated that conventional antibodies to neurofilament components can decorate neurofilaments in a periodic or helical fashion. From these observations they have then been able to construct a molecular model of the neurofilament. We have employed a similar approach to understand the structure and molecular...