Regulation of age-related structural integrity in neurons by protein with tau-like repeats (PTL-1) is cell autonomous

PTL-1 is the sole homolog of the MAP2/MAP4/tau family in Caenorhabditis elegans. Accumulation of tau is a pathological hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, reducing tau levels has been suggested as a therapeutic strategy. We previously showed that PTL-1 maintains age-related structural integrity in neurons, implying that excessive reduction in the levels of a tau-like protein is detrimental. Here, we demonstrate that the regulation of neuronal ageing by PTL-1 occurs via a cell-autonomous mechanism. We re-expressed PTL-1 in a null mutant background using a pan-neuronal promoter to show that PTL-1 functions in neurons to maintain structural integrity. We next expressed PTL-1 only in touch neurons and showed rescue of the neuronal ageing phenotype of ptl-1 mutant animals in these neurons but not in another neuronal subset, the ventral nerve cord GABAergic neurons. Knockdown of PTL-1 in touch neurons also resulted in premature neuronal ageing in these neurons but not in GABAergic neurons. Additionally, expression of PTL-1 in touch neurons alone was unable to rescue the shortened lifespan observed in ptl-1 mutants, but pan-neuronal re-expression restored wild-type longevity, indicating that, at least for a specific group of mechanosensory neurons, premature neuronal ageing and organismal ageing can be decoupled.