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The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.
It is a frequently heard complaint at the moment: Germany is in danger of being left behind internationally. Broken rails, dilapidated roads, construction sites everywhere, trains and lorries full of goods only reach their destination slowly and via detours. How wonderful it would be if a troop (or legion) of elves came overnight to repair the roads and rails so that lorries and trains could reach their destinations quickly.
What is currently causing problems on a large scale works surprisingly well on a small scale. In human cells, tubular structures inside the cells form an important element of the cytoskeleton. They provide stability and act as roads for the transport of cell components to where they are needed. The role of trucks and trains on these tubes, which are only 25 nanometres thick and are called microtubules, is played by so-called motor proteins, which transport cargo back and forth along the microtubules to . And when the microtubules are damaged, the motor proteins, much like our trucks, move slowly. Now, tiny defects in our bodies are nothing unusual; broken cells, growths and unwanted mutations are constantly being kept in check and repaired. If this is not successful and the body can no longer adequately repair the damage in one area, disease can result.
Microtubules are no exception here. Their function is essential for the stability of the cell on the one hand, and as a "motorway" for cell components on the other. A team led by Laura Aradilla, Professor of Molecular Cell Biophysics at Saarland University, has now redefined the role of a protein called "tau", which binds to microtubules, particularly in nerve cells. This is because "it helps to replace defective sections with new building blocks," says the scientist, explaining the processes that she and her doctoral student Subham Biswas, together with other colleagues, were able to observe in computer simulations at the Saarbrücken Biophysics Department and the teams led by Prof. Stefan Diez from Dresden and Dr. Karin John from Grenoble. "Until now," says Subham Biswas, "tau was considered by experts to be a protein that merely stabilises microtubules. However, we have now observed that it acts as a kind of 'caretaker' for microtubules," the biophysicist continues.
By helping to incorporate new tubulin as a building block of microtubules at defective sites, the protein could play a central role in the functioning of cellular processes. "This could be particularly important in nerve cells, whose microtubules form very long extensions," concludes Laura Aradilla.
The role of tau, now discovered by her doctoral student Subham Biswas and her collaborators, could be a starting point for further research, for example to find novel approaches to combating diseases. If it were possible to get more "caretakers", i.e. Tau, to the right places in those cells whose microtubules cause proteins to move along bumpily , the hard-working helpers could get to work and repair the damage quickly.
However, this sounds easier than it actually is, of course. This applies both to the tiny motorways in the body and to the more than 50,000 km of German motorways and railways.
Original publication:
Biswas, S., Grover, R., Reuther, C. et al. Tau accelerates tubulin exchange in the microtubule lattice. Nat. Phys. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03003-7
Further information:
Prof. Dr. Laura Aradilla
Tel.: (0681) 30268552
Email: laura.aradillazapata(at)uni-saarland.de
