Fol. Biol. 2000, 46, 87-88
New Monoclonal Antibodies Specific for Microtubule-Associated Protein MAP2
The microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) is an abundant neuronal cytoskeletal protein that binds to tubulin and stabilizes microtubules (Herzog and Weber, 1978). MAP2 is essential for the development and maitenance of neuronal morphology (Matus, 1991). In neurons MAP2 occurs as three primary isoforms, the high molecular weight MAP2a, MAP2b, and the low molecular weight MAP2c, which result from alternative splicing of the MAP2 gene (Chung et al., 1996). The low molecular weight isoform, MAP2c, is expressed in developing brain and is down-regulated during brain maturation, whereas the high molecular weight MAP2b is expressed in both developing and adult brain. The MAP2a appears only after brain maturation (Tucker, 1990). All these forms bind to microtubules through a domain near its carboxyl terminus that contains either three or four similar repeats of a 31-amino-acid motif (Lewis et al., 1988). MAP2 together with MAP4 and tau proteins belong to the family of thermostable proteins associated with microtubules.
Funding
This work was supported by the grant EU 1450 from the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic and by the grant 312/96/K205 from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic.
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Copyright
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