Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry, The Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 320 East Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2011 Jul;22(5):452-9. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2011.03.003. Epub 2011 Mar 21.
Yeast prions are atypical genetic elements that are transmitted as heritable protein conformations. [PSI+], [URE3], and [PIN+] are three well-studied prions in the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In the last three years, several additional prions have been reported in yeast, including [SWI+], [OCT+], [MCA], [GAR+], [MOT3+], [ISP+], and [NSI+]. The growing number of yeast prions suggests that protein-based inheritance might be a widespread biological phenomenon. In this review, we summarize the characteristics of each prion element, and discuss their potential functional roles in yeast biology.
酵母朊病毒是一种非典型的遗传因子,以可遗传的蛋白质构象形式进行传递。[PSI+]、[URE3]和[PIN+]是芽殖酵母酿酒酵母中研究得最为透彻的三种朊病毒。在过去的三年中,酵母中又报道了几种其他的朊病毒,包括[SWI+]、[OCT+]、[MCA]、[GAR+]、[MOT3+]、[ISP+]和[NSI+]。酵母朊病毒数量的不断增加表明,基于蛋白质的遗传可能是一种广泛存在的生物学现象。在这篇综述中,我们总结了每个朊病毒元件的特征,并讨论了它们在酵母生物学中的潜在功能作用。