Brain Microtubule Associated Proteins lays a firm foundation for understanding the brain microtubule associated proteins and how they contribute to the neurodegeneration of Alzheimer's disease. Few other reference works contain within a single source such a complete treatment of this topic. The authors cast a broad net over the field by devoting the first four chapters to each of the major brain microtubule associated proteins, MAP1A, MAP1B, MAP2 and tau. Completing this background material are chapters on the cellular role of these proteins in developing neurons and the sorting of tau to axons. The remaining chapters focus on tau - its kinases, its phosphatases, and other post-translational modifications such as ubiquitination and glycation.
The second part of the book takes a more practical approach and includes chapters on the purification of microtubule associated proteins, functional assays using gene-transfer experiments, immunofluorescence and video microscopic analysis.
This book is intended not only to be a reference source for expert laboratories but also to provide information which will allow a novice in the field to choose the best method for a particular purpose.