Yeast prions: Paramutation at the protein level?

Abstract

Prions are proteins that have the potential to refold into a novel conformation that templates the conversion of like molecules to the altered infectious form. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, trans-generational epigenetic inheritance can be mediated by a number of structurally and functionally diverse prions. Prionogenesis can confer both loss-of-function and gain-of-function properties to the prion protein and this in turn can have a major impact on host phenotype, short-term adaptation and evolution of new traits. Prionogenesis shares a number of properties in common with paramutation and can be considered as a mitotically and meiotically heritable change in protein conformation induced by trans-interactions between homologous proteins.

Keywords: Amyloid; Conformational conversion; Epigenetic inheritance; Prion variants; Prions; Propagons; Protein conformation; Saccharomyces cerevisiae; Transcription factors; Yeast.