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Expression and phosphorylation of a three-repeat isoform of tau in transfected non-neuronal cells.

ABSTRACT: The neuronal microtubule-associated protein, tau, is expressed as a set of isoforms containing either three or four tandemly repeated 31-amino-acid motifs in the C-terminal half of the molecule that can bind to microtubules. Three-repeat forms are the only ones expressed early in development. A single three-repeat isoform of tau has been stably expressed in non-neuronal cells which do not express endogenous tau. Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells were transfected with a full-length cDNA coding for the foetal form of human tau cloned downstream of the simian virus 40 (SV40) promoter, and a cell line constitutively expressing tau, CHO[pSVtau3], was isolated. Double-label immunofluorescence microscopy reveals that tau co-localizes with the microtubular network of normal or taxol-treated CHO[pSVtau3] cells, without inducing any dramatic change in cell morphology. Tau is expressed in CHO[pSVtau3] cells as three bands in SDS/PAGE recognized by antibodies to tau, the slow-migrating tau species being the most abundant. Tau also appears as three bands in a heat-stable fraction from CHO[pSVtau3] cells, but a single band of enhanced immunoreactivity is detected following treatment of this fraction with alkaline phosphatase. This single band co-migrates with the fast-migrating band of untreated fractions or whole-cell extracts. In conclusion, a three-repeat isoform of tau is capable of binding to microtubules in transfected non-neuronal cells; furthermore, in this system, the protein is phosphorylated in at least two different states inducing a reduced electrophoretic mobility.

SUBMITTER: Gallo JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1132912 | biostudies-other | 1992 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:BackgroundAlzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder with clinical presentations of progressive cognitive and memory deterioration. The pathologic hallmarks of AD include tau neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaque depositions in the hippocampus and associated neocortex. The neuronal aggregated tau observed in AD cells suggests that the protein folding problem is a major cause of AD. J-domain-containing proteins (JDPs) are the largest family of cochaperones, which play a vital role in specifying and directing HSP70 chaperone functions. JDPs bind substrates and deliver them to HSP70. The association of JDP and HSP70 opens the substrate-binding domain of HSP70 to help the loading of the clients. However, in the initial HSP70 cycle, which JDP delivers tau to the HSP70 system in neuronal cells remains unclear.ResultsWe screened the requirement of a diverse panel of JDPs for preventing tau aggregation in the human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y by a filter retardation method. Interestingly, knockdown of DNAJB6, one of the JDPs, displayed tau aggregation and overexpression of DNAJB6b, one of the isoforms generated from the DNAJB6 gene by alternative splicing, reduced tau aggregation. Further, the tau bimolecular fluorescence complementation assay confirmed the DNAJB6b-dependent tau clearance. The co-immunoprecipitation and the proximity ligation assay demonstrated the protein-protein interaction between tau and the chaperone-cochaperone complex. The J-domain of DNAJB6b was critical for preventing tau aggregation. Moreover, reduced DNAJB6 expression and increased tau aggregation were detected in an age-dependent manner in immunohistochemical analysis of the hippocampus tissues of a mouse model of tau pathology.ConclusionsIn summary, downregulation of DNAJB6b increases the insoluble form of tau, while overexpression of DNAJB6b reduces tau aggregation. Moreover, DNAJB6b associates with tau. Therefore, this study reveals that DNAJB6b is a direct sensor for its client tau in the HSP70 folding system in neuronal cells, thus helping to prevent AD.

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Expression and phosphorylation of a three-repeat isoform of tau in transfected non-neuronal cells.

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