Taxol-stabilized microtubules promote the formation of filaments from unmodified full-length Tau in vitro.

ABSTRACT: Tau is a neuronal protein that stabilizes the microtubule (MT) network, but it also forms filaments associated with Alzheimer's disease. Understanding Tau-MT and Tau-Tau interactions would help to establish Tau function in health and disease. For many years, literature reports on Tau-MT binding behavior and affinity have remained surprisingly contradictory (e.g., 10-fold variation in Tau-MT affinity). Tau-Tau interactions have also been investigated, but whether MTs might affect Tau filament formation is unknown. We have addressed these issues through binding assays and microscopy. We assessed Tau-MT interactions via cosedimentation and found that the measured affinity of Tau varies greatly, depending on the experimental design and the protein concentrations used. To investigate this depen

SUBMITTER: Duan AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3521687 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature