Category: Uncategorized

PRIONS AS BENEFICIAL. "Prions can introduce useful genetic diversity. A new survey...found prions in 1/3 of yeast strains, and 40% of the traits they conferred were beneficial." https://lnkd.in/eT4cFFg View in LinkedIn

PROTEIN-BASED GENES. "The central oddity of prions is that they propagate autocatalytically in a protein-only form, without DNA involvement. For this reason, they are frequently referred to as protein-based genes." https://lnkd.in/e7VVjkg View in LinkedIn

SPECTRUM. "Our perspective assumes no sharp distinction between life and non-life, and does not equate life exclusively with cellular or organismal status. We reach this conclusion through an analysis of the capabilities of a spectrum of biological entities, in which we include the pivotal case of viruses as well as prions, plasmids, organelles, intracellular and extracellular symbionts, unicellular and multicellular life-forms." https://lnkd.in/e7VVjkg View in LinkedIn

FUNCTIONAL WHOLES. "By conceiving of metabolism as a collaborative process performed by functional wholes, which are associations of a variety of lineage-forming entities, we avoid the standard tension between reproduction and metabolism in discussions of life – a tension particularly evident in discussions of whether viruses are alive." https://lnkd.in/e7VVjkg View in LinkedIn

COLLABORATIVE MOLECULES. "Life arises when lineage-forming entities collaborate in metabolism." https://lnkd.in/e7VVjkg View in LinkedIn

PRIONS AS SELF-INTERESTED COLLABORATORS. "Prions exhibit collaborative behaviours that benefit themselves, as a class of protein isoforms, as well as their hosts." https://lnkd.in/eNrKfp8 View in LinkedIn

QUASI-SPECIES. "The prion protein is not a clone, it is a quasi-species that can create different protein strains even in the same animal. The abnormal prion proteins multiply by converting normal prion proteins." https://lnkd.in/eRi8WNN View in LinkedIn

PRION MUTATIONS. "The existence of prion strains raises questions of how hereditable biological information can be encrypted in a molecule other than nucleic acid. There is mounting evidence that the diversity of prions is enciphered in the conformation of the PrP(Sc) protein." Conformation is simply the shape of the molecule. https://lnkd.in/ezndu2V View in LinkedIn

PRIONS EVOLVE WITHOUT DNA. "Prions are the clearest example of the evolutionary ability of nonliving agents. It is now known that as the abnormal prions replicate, variants can be created. And when those variants are transferred to a new host, natural selection will eventually choose the most virulent and aggressive variants...prions may develop drug resistance." https://lnkd.in/efuQiwq View in LinkedIn

SELF-PROPAGATING. "Prions are proteins that acquire alternative conformations that become self-propagating." (Stanley B. Prisoner, thought leader of prions). Without DNA, this protein has crossed the line of generally accepted definitions of life, and sparks the aspirations of many who wish to make self-propagating and evolving protein robots. https://lnkd.in/e5DP4zX View in LinkedIn