title: Neuronal tau induces DNA conformational changes observed by atomic force microscopy.
abstract: Neuronal tau associates with chromosome scaffold and localizes in the nuclear and the nucleolar organization regions in neuronal and some non-neuronal cells. Observing the interaction of neuronal tau with DNA under AFM shows that tau binds to DNA as a monomer, and tau-DNA complex forms a beads-on-a-string structure when the mass ratio is 1:10 (molar ratio of tau/DNA approximately 1:700 bp). A beads-on-a-coil structure, in which tau is as polymers, will appear when the mass ratio is up to 1:5 (molar ratio of tau/DNA approximately 1:350 bp). The present observation that neuronal tau bends the DNA double strands indicates that the appearance of the tau-DNA complex is dependent upon the mass (or molar) ratio of tau and DNA.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Visual Information Processing, Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15 Datun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101.
authors.forename: Mei-hua
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Chun-lai
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Bao-shan
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Rong-qiao
authors.initials: RQ
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011485:Protein Binding; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D016875:tau Proteins; D004247:DNA