Projection domains of MAP2 and tau determine spacings between microtubules in dendrites and axons
Abstract
Neurons develop a highly polarized morphology consisting of dendrites and a long axon. Both axons and dendrites contain microtubules and microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) with characteristic structures. Among MAPs, MAP2 is specifically expressed in dendrites whereas MAP2C and tau are abundant in the axon. But the influence of MAP2, MAP2C and tau on the organization of microtubule domains in dendrites versus axons is unknown. Both MAP2 and tau induce microtubule bundle formation in fibroblasts after transfection of complementary DNAs, and a long process resembling an axon is extended in Sf9 cells infected with recombinant baculovirus expressing tau. We have now expressed MAP2 and MAP2C in Sf9 cells in order to compare their morphology and the arrangement of their microtubules to that found in Sf9 cells expressing tau. We report here that the spacing between microtubules depends on the MAP expressed: in cells expressing MAP2, the distance is similar to that found in dendrites, whereas the spacing between microtubules in cells expressing MAP2C or tau is similar to that found in axons.
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Tau regulates the axonal cytoskeleton.
“Tau regulates the axonal cytoskeleton (Kanai et al., 1992; Chen et al., 1992; Panda et al., 2003; Rosenberg et al., 2008; Chung et al., 2015; Biswas and Kalil, 2018), and acts as a selective barrier on microtubules to direct intracellular transport”
From Tau hyperphosphorylation impairs cooperative binding to microtubules and perturbs organelle trafficking in neurons (2026) · cites this paper as Chen et al., 1992
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Beaudet, D., Berger, C. L., & Hendricks, A. G. (2026) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.110011
- Authors
- Chen, J., Kanai, Y., Cowan, N. J., & Hirokawa, N.
- Affiliations
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- NYU Langone Health (US)
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 1992-12
- Volume
- 360
- Issue
- 6405
- Pages
- 674-677
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2039270622
- Cited by
- 601
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 7.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Microtubule and mitosis dynamics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Developmental Neuroscience › Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mechanisms
- Keywords
- MAP2, MAP2c, tau protein, microtubule-associated proteins, microtubule bundling, dendrites, axons, neuronal polarity, baculovirus expression system, Sf9 cells, microtubule organization
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Axons, Cell Line, Dendrites, Freeze Etching, Insecta, Microscopy, Electron, Microtubule-Associated Proteins, Microtubules, Neurons, Purkinje Cells, Recombinant Proteins, Transfection, tau Proteins, Rats
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