Tau proteins are proteins that stabilize microtubules. They are abundant in neurons in the central nervous system and are less common elsewhere.
When tau proteins are defective, and no longer stabilize microtubules properly, they can result in dementias, such as Alzheimer's disease.
The tau proteins are the product of alternative splicing from a single gene that in humans is designated ''MAPT''. They were discovered in 1975 in Marc Kirschner's laboratory at Princeton University.
Further Reading
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article on
"Tau protein"
All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Wikipedia® itself is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.