Figure 5.

The phosphorylation status of residues at position 152 and 153 predicts the effect of tau protein expression on C. elegans development and thrashing. (A) The generation of a complete series of C. elegans tau protein variants expressing alanine (A—not phosphorylatable), threonine (T—phosphorylatable) or glutamate (E—phosphomimetic) residues at the 152 and 153 positions. (B) Animals expressing each tau protein variant were staged as embryos, and development was scored to L4 stage (n = 10–20 eggs, 5 biological replicates). One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Comparisons are to N2 WT animals. Error bars represent SEM. ^* = P < 0.05, ^** = P < 0.01, ^**** = P < 0.0001. (C) Measurement of the number of thrashes per minute for day 1 adult animals (n ≥ 8, 3 biological replicates). One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Error bars represent SEM. ^** = P < 0.01, ^**** = P < 0.0001. Comparisons are to N2 WT animals.