Neurodegenerative diseases of Guam: analysis of TAU.

Mutations in the tau gene have been described in families affected by frontotemporal dementia with parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17. The authors performed a genetic and biochemical analysis of this gene and its product in the parkinsonism dementia complex of Guam, a disorder characterized by the extensive formation of neurofibrillary tangles. The tau gene is not a primary cause of the parkinsonism dementia complex of Guam.