Background:

Phalloidin is a mushroom-derived toxin which can be used to label F-actin of the cytoskeleton with fluorochrome(λex=495 nm, λem=520 nm).

Phalloidin staining will not work with methanol-fixed cells, probably because of the disruption of actin filament integrity, but it will work with cells fixed in 0.2% glutaraldehyde in PBS. For fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-Phalloidin (or rhodamine isothiocyanate [RITC]-Phalloidin), the excitation wavelength maximum will be near 495 nm (or 550 nm) and the emission wavelength maximum will be