FTDP-17 mutations compromise the ability of tau to regulate microtubule dynamics in cells

The neural microtubule-associated protein Tau binds directly to microtubules and regulates their dynamic behavior. In addition to being required for normal development, maintenance, and function of the nervous system, Tau is associated with several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease. One group of neurodegenerative dementias known as FTDP-17 (fronto-temporal dementia with Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17) is directly linked genetically to mutations in the tau gene, demonstrating that Tau misfunction can cause neuronal cell death and dementia. These mutations result either in amino acid substitutions in Tau or in altered Tau mRNA splicing that skews the expression ratio of wild-type 3-repeat and 4-repeat Tau isoforms. Because wild-type Tau regulates microtubule dynamics, one possible mechanism underlying Tau-mediated neurodegeneration is aberrant regulation of microtubule behavior. In this study, we microinjected normal and mutated Tau protein into cultured cells expressing fluorescent tubulin and measured the effects on the dynamic instability of individual microtubules. We found that the FTDP-17 amino acid substitutions G272V (in both 3-repeat and 4-repeat Tau contexts), DeltaK280, and P301L all exhibited markedly reduced abilities to regulate dynamic instability relative to wild-type Tau. In contrast, the FTDP-17 R406W mutation (which maps in a regulatory region outside the microtubule binding domain of Tau) did not significantly alter the ability of 3-repeat or 4-repeat Tau to regulate microtubule dynamics. Overall, these data are consistent with a loss-of-function model in which both amino acid substitutions and altered mRNA splicing in Tau lead to neurodegeneration by diminishing the ability of Tau to properly regulate microtubule dynamics.