Comments on: Prions: infectious states of protein folding

By: INFECCIONES RESPIRATORIAS AGUDAS, MUERTES – GLOBAL | Cancer causes Blog

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:23:58 +0000

[...] Prions: spreading states of protein folding « ViroBlogy [...]

By: Ed Rybicki

Ed Rybicki — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:47:24 +0000

Reon: hi, and you are absolutely right. Just because it’s pathological in the settings we have investigated in in more complicated eukaryotes, doesn’t mean it always is – as is the case in yeasts, for example. It is well proven in S cerevisiae that prion-like proteins are important in epigenetic inheritance of traits that have to do with survival.

Just a pity they are also a marker for bad agricultural practice – feeding bits of cow to other cows – in both cows and humans!

By: Reon Brand

Reon Brand — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:32:05 +0000

I wonder if prions could be an important evolutionary mechanism. That would imply that benign prions could exist that augment genetics and epi-genetics as a mechanism to enhance adaptability.

The fact that such prions are not so evident could be due to the fact that virology may be biased towards the investigation of pathology. I think there has been work in Saccharomyces cerevisiae that indicated prions as an adaptive mechanism to counter-act stress. Just a thought…