Systematic identification of tubulin-interacting fragments of the microtubule-associated protein Tau leads to a highly efficient promoter of microtubule assembly.

ABSTRACT: Tau is a microtubule-associated protein that stabilizes microtubules and stimulates their assembly. Current descriptions of the tubulin-interacting regions of Tau involve microtubules as the target and result mainly from deletions of Tau domains based on sequence analysis and from NMR spectroscopy experiments. Here, instead of microtubules, we use the complex of two tubulin heterodimers with the stathmin-like domain of the RB3 protein (T(2)R) to identify interacting Tau fragments generated by limited proteolysis. We show that fragments in the proline-rich region and in the microtubule-binding repeats domain each interact on their own not only with T(2)R but also with microtubules, albeit with moderate affinity. NMR analysis of the interaction with T(2)R of constructs in these two regions l

SUBMITTER: Fauquant C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3190875 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature