RT-PCR assays using extracted RNA from normal and scrapie-infected hamsters as the templates revealed a 187 bp product with Tau-2-specific primers and a 127 bp fragment with Tau-4-specific primers, possibly representing the tau isoform of 372 amino acid residues and isoform of 432 amino acid residues, while the primers for Tau-6 failed to produce positive product (data not shown). The gene discussed is MAPT; the disease is scrapie.