Cytoskeletal interactions in axonal transport

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Eckhard Mandelkow
• Subject Area: Cell Biology
• Term: from 2006 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 14023866

The aim of this project is to analyze the interactions between neuronal motor proteins, microtubules, and microtubule-associated proteins, it will encompass structural studies of the proteins, observations of microtubule-dependent traffic in neurons, analysis of traffic regulation by phosphorylation and of the interactions between the neuronal microtubule and actin cytoskeleton. By combining our expertise in the cell biology, culture and adenoviral transfection of neuronal cells with the expertise of the groups in Hannover-Braunschweig in the areas of advanced imaging techniques and the components of the actomyosin-based cytoskeleton, we will be able to dissect the crosstalk between the filament systems and gain new insights in the cell biology of neuronal cells in much greater detail than previously possible, A special focus will be the question of how tau, an axonal microtubule-associated protein that plays a role in Alzheimer neurodegeneration, can impose a general inhibition of anterograde traffic of vesicles and organelles without being subject to the same inhibition. This requires an analysis of the different modes and motors of cytoskeletal movements in neuronal cell processes.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 629: Molecular Mechanisms of Cell Motility