BPS2026 – Investigating the effect of Tau PTM mimics on microtubule interactions

Tau is an intrinsically disordered microtubule associated protein that regulates cycles of microtubule growth and catastrophe. Tau has four major domains: a negatively charged N-terminal region, a proline rich region (PRR), a microtubule binding region (MTBR), and a C-terminal tail. Using post translational modification mimics, we investigated the impact of modifications at specific sites on Tau’s interactions with tubulin and microtubules. Specifically, we used fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to quantify Tau binding to soluble tubulin, and total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy to quantify the kinetics of Tau-mediated microtubule polymerization.