The microtubule-associated protein tau has gained significant attention over the last several decades primarily due to its apparent role in the pathogenesis of several diseases, most notably Alzheimer's disease. While the field has focused largely on tau's potential contributions to disease mechanisms, comparably less work has focused on normal tau physiology. Moreover, as the field has grown, some misconceptions and dogmas regarding normal tau physiology have become engrained in the traditional narrative. Here, one of the most common misconceptions regarding tau, namely its normal cellular/subcellular distribution in the CNS, is discussed. The literature describing the presence of tau in neuronal somata, dendrites, axons and synapses, as well as in glial cells is described. The origins for the erroneous description of tau as an “axon-specific,” “axon-enriched” and/or “neuron-specific” protein are discussed as well. The goal of this work is to help address these specific dogmatic misconceptions and provide a concise description of tau's normal cellular/subcellular localization in the adult CNS. This information can help refine our collective understanding of- and hypotheses about tau biology and pathobiology.

中文翻译：

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这里有 tau 蛋白，那里有 tau 蛋白，几乎到处都有 tau 蛋白：阐明 tau 蛋白在成人中枢神经系统中的分布

微管相关蛋白 tau 在过去几十年中受到了广泛关注，主要是因为它在多种疾病（尤其是阿尔茨海默病）的发病机制中发挥着明显的作用。虽然该领域主要关注 tau 对疾病机制的潜在贡献，但关注正常 tau 生理学的工作相对较少。此外，随着该领域的发展，一些关于正常 tau 生理学的误解和教条已在传统叙述中根深蒂固。在这里，我们讨论了关于 tau 蛋白最常见的误解之一，即它在中枢神经系统中的正常细胞/亚细胞分布。描述了神经元胞体、树突、轴突和突触以及神经胶质细胞中 tau 蛋白存在的文献。还讨论了将 tau 错误描述为“轴突特异性”、“轴突富集”和/或“神经元特异性”蛋白质的起源。这项工作的目标是帮助解决这些特定的教条性误解，并提供 tau 在成人中枢神经系统中正常细胞/亚细胞定位的简明描述。这些信息可以帮助完善我们对 tau 生物学和病理学的集体理解和假设。