The Drosophila model system to study tau action.

The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is a powerful model system for applying molecular, cellular, and genetic approaches to understanding human tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease. Here, we provide an introduction to using Drosophila as a tauopathy model system and describe several protocols that we use to analyze human tau protein expressed in flies. Methods to detect tau expression include light and scanning electron microscopy in the fly eye, confocal microscopy of primary neuronal cultures, and preparation of tissue homogenates for separation by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with analysis by Western blotting.