Abstract
Treatment of filament-containing epidermal cells of several teleost species with low temperature (0 °C) causes a profound structural rearrangement of their tonofilaments. Dense amorphous or granular aggregates formed from tonofilament material appear throughout the cytoplasm and in association with desmosomes at the cell periphery. This so far unique response of one class of intermediate-sized filaments to a physical agent is readily reversed, within minutes, by rewarming the cells. Recovery from cold treatment is characterized by a decrease in density of tonofilament aggregates and a concomitant increase in tonofilaments in their vicinity. Aggregate formation is unrelated to the depolymerization of microtubules also caused by cold treatment, since neither colchicine nor vinblastine elicit a similar effect. Tonofilament aggregates do not form in Triton X-100 extracted cells cooled after lysis, while lysis of cooled intact cells has no influence on the aggregates thus formed. It is hypothesized that the structural transformation of tonofilaments upon cold treatment may be restricted to the class of intermediate-sized filaments present in cells of the teleost epidermis.
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