Heritable activity: a prion that propagates by covalent autoactivation (original) (raw)

1. B.Tibor Roberts and
2. Reed B. Wickner1
3. Laboratory of Biochemistry and Genetics, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-0830, USA

Abstract

Known prions (infectious proteins) are self-propagating amyloids or conformationally altered proteins, but in theory an enzyme necessary for its own activation could also be a prion (or a gene composed of protein).We show that yeast protease B is such a prion, called [β].[β] is infectious, reversibly curable, and its de novo generation is induced by overexpression of the pro-protease. Present in normal cells but masked by the functionally redundant protease A, [β] is advantageous during starvation and necessary for sporulation.We propose that other enzymes whose active, modified, form is necessary for their maturation might also be prions.

• Prion
• protease
• vacuole
• epigenetics
• yeast

Footnotes

• Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1115803.

• ↵1 Corresponding author.
  ↵1 E-MAILwickner{at}helix.nih.gov; FAX (301) 402-0240.

• • Accepted June 27, 2003.
  • Received May 23, 2003.

• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press

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