Fig. 2

Tau phosphomimetic S208E increased MT binding compared to WT tau and other tau phosphomimetics. a, b Cell-based MT binding assays were performed on HEK293T cells transfected to express 2N4R WT human tau without (a) or with (b) Paclitaxel added as described in “Material and Methods”. The same assay with Paclitaxel added as performed for cells expressing 2N4R human tau with the (c) S208E, (d) S202E/T205E or (e) S202E/T205E/S208E phosphomimetics. Immunoblots were probed with antibody specific for β-tubulin (clone TUB 2.1) to confirm tubulin polymerization or with 3026, a polyclonal antibody against total tau. S = supernatant fraction; P = pellet fractions. The relative molecular masses of protein markers are indicated on the left. f Quantification of percent tau associated with MTs. One-way ANOVA with Dunnett’s Test was performed with N = 3 for WT tau and N = 3 for each of these tau mutants. ** = p < 0.01, ns = not statistically significant. Error bars show standard error of the mean