Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein E2 binds to tau exon 10 and moderately activates its splicing

Tau is a microtubule-associated protein whose transcript undergoes complex-regulated splicing in the mammalian nervous system. Exon 10 of the gene is an alternatively spliced cassette, which is adult-specific and codes for a microtubule-binding domain. Mutations that affect splicing of exon 10 have been shown to cause frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism (FTDP). Using tau exon 10 as a bait in a yeast three-hybrid screen, we discovered that it interacts with hnRNPE2. Cotransfection assays show that hnRNPE2 isoforms moderately activate the splicing of exon 10.