SGD Paper 
Wang YQ, et al. (2011) Relationship between Prion Propensity and the Rates of Individual Molecular Steps of Fibril Assembly. J Biol Chem 286(14):12101-7
Abstract: Peptides and proteins possess an inherent propensity to self-assemble into generic fibrillar nanostructures known as amyloid fibrils, some of which are involved in medical conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. In certain cases, such structures can self-propagate in living systems as prions and transmit characteristic traits to the host organism. The mechanisms which allow certain amyloid species but not others to function as prions are not fully understood. Much progress in understanding the prion phenomenon has been achieved through the study of prions in yeast as this system has proved to be experimentally tractable; but quantitative understanding of the biophysics and kinetics of the assembly process has remained challenging. Here, we explore assembly of two closely related homologues of the Ure2p protein from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces paradoxus, and by using a combination of kinetic theory with solution and biosensor assays, we are able to compare the rates of the individual microscopic steps of prion fibril assembly. We found that for these proteins the fragmentation rate is encoded in the structure of the seed fibrils, whereas the elongation rate is principally determined by the nature of the soluble precursor protein. Our results further reveal that fibrils that elongate faster but fracture less frequently can lose their ability to propagate as prions. These findings illuminate the connections between in vitro aggregation of proteins and in vivo proliferation of prions, and provide a framework for the quantitative understanding of the parameters governing the behavior of amyloid fibrils in normal and aberrant biological pathways.
| Status: Published | Type: Journal Article | PubMed ID: 21233211 |
Topics addressed in this paper
- To find other papers on a gene and topic, click on the colored ball in the appropriate box.
- displays other papers with information about that topic for that gene.
- displays other papers in SGD that are associated with that topic.
The topic is addressed in these papers but does not describe a specific gene or chromosomal feature.
- To go to the Locus page for a gene, click on the gene name.
| Topics | Genes linked to topics |
|---|---|
| URE2 | |
| Disease Gene Related |  |
| Fungal Related Genes/Proteins | |
| Primary Literature | |
| Protein/Nucleic Acid Structure | |
