Quantitative and combinatory determination of in situ phosphorylation of tau and its FTDP-17 mutants

Tau is hyperphosphorylated in the brains of patients with tauopathies, such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17). However, neither the mechanism of hyperphosphorylation nor its contribution to pathogenesis is known. We applied Phos-tag SDS-PAGE, a phosphoaffinity electrophoresis, to the analysis of tau phosphorylation in vitro by Cdk5, in cultured cells and in mouse brain. Here, we found that Cdk5-p25 phosphorylated tau in vitro at Ser404, Ser235, Thr205 and Ser202 in this order. In contrast in cultured cells, Ser404 was preferentially phosphorylated by Cdk5-p35, whereas Thr205 was not phosphorylated. Ser202 and Ser235 were phosphorylated by endogenous kinases. Tau exhibited ~12 phosphorylation isotypes in COS-7 cells with different combinations of phosphorylation at Thr181, Ser202, Thr231, Ser235 and Ser404. These phosphorylation sites were similar to tau phosphorylated in mouse brains. FTDP-17 tau with a mutation in the C-terminal region had different banding patterns, indicating a different phosphorylation pattern. In particular, it was clear that the R406W mutation causes loss of Ser404 phosphorylation. These results demonstrate the usefulness of the Phos-tag technique in the quantitative analysis of site-specific in vivo phosphorylation of tau and provide detailed information on in situ combinatory phosphorylation of tau.