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Microtubule-associated protein tau in human prostate cancer cells: isoforms, phosphorylation, and interactions.

ABSTRACT: Tau is a microtubule-associated protein whose function has been investigated primarily in neurons. Recently, tau expression has been correlated with increased drug resistance in various cancers of non-neuronal tissues. In this report, we investigate the tau expressed in cancerous prostate lines ALVA-31, DU 145, and PC-3. Prostate cancer tau is heat-stable and highly phosphorylated, containing many of the modifications identified in Alzheimer's disease brain tau. RT-PCR and phosphatase treatment indicated that all six alternatively spliced adult brain tau isoforms are expressed in ALVA-31 cells, and isoforms containing exon 6 as well as high molecular weight tau isoforms containing either exon 4A or a larger splice variant of exon 4A are also present. Consistent with its hyperphosphorylated state, a large proportion of ALVA-31 tau does not bind to microtubules, as detected by confocal microscopy and biochemical tests. Finally, endogenous ALVA-31 tau can interact with the p85 subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, as demonstrated by co-immunoprecipitations and in vitro protein-binding assays. Our results suggest that tau in prostate cancer cells does not resemble that from normal adult brain and support the hypothesis that tau is a multifunctional protein.

SUBMITTER: Souter S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4299866 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Microtubule-associated protein tau in human prostate cancer cells: isoforms, phosphorylation, and interactions.

Souter Skye S Lee Gloria G

Journal of cellular biochemistry 20091001 3

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein whose function has been investigated primarily in neurons. Recently, tau expression has been correlated with increased drug resistance in various cancers of non-neuronal tissues. In this report, we investigate the tau expressed in cancerous prostate lines ALVA-31, DU 145, and PC-3. Prostate cancer tau is heat-stable and highly phosphorylated, containing many of the modifications identified in Alzheimer's disease brain tau. RT-PCR and phosphatase treatment ...[more]

PMID: 19681044

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Project description:BackgroundThe microtubule associated protein Tau (MAPT) promotes assembly and interaction of microtubules with the cytoskeleton, impinging on axonal transport and synaptic plasticity. Its neuronal expression and intrinsic disorder implicate it in some 30 tauopathies such as Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. These pathophysiological studies have yet to be complemented by computational analyses of its molecular evolution and structural models of all its functional domains to explain the molecular basis for its conservation profile, its site-specific interactions and the propensity to conformational disorder and aggregate formation.ResultsWe systematically annotated public sequence data to reconstruct unspliced MAPT, MAP2 and MAP4 transcripts spanning all represented genomes. Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses, genetic linkage maps and domain architectures distinguished a nonvertebrate outgroup from the emergence of MAP4 and its subsequent ancestral duplication to MAP2 and MAPT. These events were coupled to other linked genes such as KANSL1L and KANSL and may thus be consequent to large-scale chromosomal duplications originating in the extant vertebrate genomes of hagfish and lamprey. Profile hidden Markov models (pHMMs), clustered subalignments and 3D structural predictions defined potential interaction motifs and specificity determining sites to reveal distinct signatures between the four homologous microtubule binding domains and independent divergence of the amino terminus.ConclusionThese analyses clarified ambiguities of MAPT nomenclature, defined the order, timing and pattern of its molecular evolution and identified key residues and motifs relevant to its protein interaction properties and pathogenic role. Additional unexpected findings included the expansion of cysteine-containing, microtubule binding domains of MAPT in cold adapted Antarctic icefish and the emergence of a novel multiexonic saitohin (STH) gene from repetitive elements in MAPT intron 11 of certain primate genomes.

Dataset Information

Microtubule-associated protein tau in human prostate cancer cells: isoforms, phosphorylation, and interactions.

Publications

Microtubule-associated protein tau in human prostate cancer cells: isoforms, phosphorylation, and interactions.

Similar Datasets

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