Biology of Prions

Prions: Portable prion domains

Self-propagating abnormal proteins, prions, have been identified in yeast; asparagine/glutamine-rich 'prion domains' within these proteins can inactivate the linked functional domains; new prion domains and reporters have been used to make 'synthetic prions', leading to discoveries of new natural prions.

Prions, protein homeostasis, and phenotypic diversity.

Prions are fascinating but often misunderstood protein aggregation phenomena. The traditional association of the mammalian prion protein with disease has overshadowed a potentially more interesting attribute of prions: their ability to create protein-based molecular memories. In fungi, prions alter the relationship between genotype and phenotype in a heritable way that diversifies clonal popula...

Yeast prions: structure, biology, and prion-handling systems.

A prion is an infectious protein horizontally transmitting a disease or trait without a required nucleic acid. Yeast and fungal prions are nonchromosomal genes composed of protein, generally an altered form of a protein that catalyzes the same alteration of the protein. Yeast prions are thus transmitted both vertically (as genes composed of protein) and horizontally (as infectious proteins, or ...

Structural biology of prions.

The Master Code of Biology: from Prions and Prions-like Invariants to the Self-assembly Thesis

Concretely, the dynamics of this Genomics/Proteomics coupling is appeared as two correlated curves translating topology and the dynamic evolution of a hierarchical classification of codons throughout the studied sequence. More precisely, the study of these curves shows that this tool highlights the functional areas and active sites within proteins. The specific context of Prions area could be a...

What makes a good prion?

Introduction Although transmissible spongiform encephalopathies have been studied for decades, prion biology is still a young discipline. The prion concept has existed for less than a quarter of a century, and the study of fungal prions is barely in its teens. The fascinating idea that a protein can turn into a deadly self-replicating entity attracts neurobiologists, cell biologists, geneticist...