Tau-like proteins in the nervous system of goldfish

This report describes the presence of a group of tau-like proteins (TLPs) in goldfish central nervous system. The TLPs were immunoreactive with antibodies that recognized the carboxy-terminal domain of mammalian tan, but not with antibodies that recognized the amino-terminus. The TLPs of goldfish exhibited the basic properties of tau proteins including neuronal specificity, structural heterogeneity, heat stability and the ability to co-assemble with tubulin. We propose that TLPs may represent a precursor of tau, that share the microtubule binding domain and the carboxyterminal domain with mammalian tan proteins. In contrast the amino-terminus of the TLPs is much shorter and may represent a more variable domain of tau proteins.