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Identification of 3′UTR region implicated in tau mRNA stabilization in neuronal cells

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Abstract

Tau, a neuronal microtuble-associated protein (MAP) plays an important role in the formation and maintenance of neuronal polarity. Tau mRNA is a stable message and exhibits a relatively long half-life in neuronal cells. The regulation of mRNA stability is a crucial determinant in controlling mRNA steady-state levels in neuronal cells and thereby influences gene expression. The half-lives of specific mRNAs may be dependent on specific sequences located at their 3′untranslated region (UTR), which in turn, may be recognized by tissue-specific proteins.

To identify the sequence elements involved in tau mRNA stabilization, selected regions of the 3′UTR were subcloned downstream to c-fos reporter mRNA or to the coding region of the tau mRNA. Using stably transfected neuronal cells, we have demonstrated that a fragment of 240 bp (H fragment) located in the 3′UTR can stabilize c-fos and tau mRNAs. Analysis of stably transfected cells indicated that the transfected tau mRNAs are associated with the microtubules of neuronal cells, suggesting that this association may play a role in tau mRNA stabilization. This step may be a prerequisite in the multistep process leading to the subcellular localization of tau mRNA in neuronal cells.

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  1. Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Stella Aronov, Ruth Marx & Irith Ginzburg

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  1. Stella Aronov
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Aronov, S., Marx, R. & Ginzburg, I. Identification of 3′UTR region implicated in tau mRNA stabilization in neuronal cells. J Mol Neurosci 12, 131–145 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02736927

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