Prions are self-propagating protein aggregates that can be transmitted between cells. The aggregates are associated with human diseases. Indeed, pathological prions cause mad cow disease and in humans Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The aggregation of prion-like proteins is also associated with neurodegeneration as in ALS. The regions within prion-like proteins that are responsible for their aggregation were termed prion-like domains. Despite the important role of prion-like domains in human diseases, a physiological function has remained enigmatic…read more
Cryo-Electron Microscopy Image of a biomolecular condensate of a Prion Protein
Reference:
Titus M. Franzmann, Marcus Jahnel, Andrei Pozniakovsky, Julia Mahamid, Alex S. Holehouse, Elisabeth Nüske, Doris Richter, Wolfgang Baumeister, Stephan W. Grill, Rohit V. Pappu, Anthony A. Hyman und Simon Alberti. Phase separation of a yeast prion protein promotes cellular fitness, Science, (359) 5 January 2018.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aao5654