Tau is a microtubule-associated protein implicated in neurodegenerative tauopathies. Alternative splicing of the tau gene (MAPT) generates six tau isoforms, distinguishable by the exclusion or inclusion of a repeat region of exon 10, which are referred to as 3-repeat (3R) and 4-repeat (4R) tau, respectively. We developed transgenic mouse models that express the entire human MAPT gene in the presence and absence of the mouse Mapt gene and compared the expression and regulation of mouse and human tau isoforms during development and in the young adult. We found differences between mouse and human tau in the regulation of exon 10 inclusion. Despite these differences, the isoform splicing pattern seen in normal human brain is replicated in our mouse models. In addition, we found that all tau, both in the neonate and young adult, is phosphorylated. We also examined the normal anatomic distribution of mouse and human tau isoforms in mouse brain. We observed developmental and species-specific variations in the expression of 3R- and 4R-tau within the frontal cortex and hippocampus. In addition, there were differences in the cellular distribution of the isoforms. Mice transgenic for the human MAPT gene exhibited higher levels of neuronal cell body expression of tau compared to wildtype mice. This neuronal cell body expression of tau was limited to the 3R isoform, whereas expression of 4R-tau was more "synaptic like," with granular staining of neuropil rather than in neuronal cell bodies. These developmental and species-specific differences in the regulation and distribution of tau isoforms may be important to the understanding of normal and pathologic tau isoform expression.

Autism is caused, in part, by inheritance of multiple interacting susceptibility alleles. To identify these inherited factors, linkage analysis of multiplex families is being performed on a sample of 105 families with two or more affected sibs. Segregation patterns of short tandem repeat polymorphic markers from four chromosomes revealed null alleles at four marker sites in 12 families that were the result of deletions ranging in size from 5 to >260 kb. In one family, a deletion at marker D7S630 was complex, with two segments deleted (37 kb and 18 kb) and two retained (2,836 bp and 38 bp). Three families had deletions at D7S517, with each family having a different deletion (96 kb, 183 kb, and >69 kb). Another three families had deletions at D8S264, again with each family having a different deletion, ranging in size from <5.9 kb to >260 kb. At a fourth marker, D8S272, a 192-kb deletion was found in five families. Unrelated subjects and additional families without autism were screened for deletions at these four sites. Families screened included 40 families from Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humaine and 28 families affected with learning disabilities. Unrelated samples were 299 elderly control subjects, 121 younger control subjects, and 248 subjects with Alzheimer disease. The deletion allele at D8S272 was found in all populations screened. For the other three sites, no additional deletions were identified in any of the groups without autism. Thus, these deletions appear to be specific to autism kindreds and are potential autism-susceptibility alleles. An alternative hypothesis is that autism-susceptibility alleles elsewhere cause the deletions detected here, possibly by inducing errors during meiosis.