REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Neurosci.
Sec. Cellular Neurophysiology
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fncel.2025.1610371
MAP2 Phosphorylation: Mechanisms, Functional Consequences, and Emerging Insights
Provisionally accepted
- 1Tsinghua Medicine, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 2Translational Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- 3Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
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Microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) is a key regulator of cytoskeletal dynamics and neuronal function. It stabilizes microtubules, shapes dendrites, influences synaptic plasticity, and regulates transportation and protein synthesis through its interactions with other proteins. MAP2 undergoes extensive phosphorylation, which dynamically modulates these interactions and alters MAP2 functions. This review provides a comprehensive overview of MAP2 structure, its diverse functional roles in neurons, the kinases that regulate its phosphorylation. We highlight how phosphorylation by Src family kinases, proline-directed kinases, MARK, PKA, PKC, and CAMKII governs MAP2's role in cytoskeletal organization, protein chaperone activity, and dendrite outgrowth.
Keywords: Microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), Phosphorylation, kinase, Cytoskeleton, microtubule, Dendrite
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lyu, DeMarco, Sweet and Grubisha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Melanie J Grubisha, Translational Neuroscience Program, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 15260, Pennsylvania, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.