Kent Fungal Group, School of Biosciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom.
Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci. 2012;107:417-56. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-385883-2.00007-2.
For both mammalian and fungal prion proteins, conformational templating drives the phenomenon of protein-only infectivity. The conformational conversion of a protein to its transmissible prion state is associated with changes to host cellular physiology. In mammals, this change is synonymous with disease, whereas in fungi no notable detrimental effect on the host is typically observed. Instead, fungal prions can serve as epigenetic regulators of inheritance in the form of partial loss-of-function phenotypes. In the presence of environmental challenges, the prion state [PRION(+)], with its resource for phenotypic plasticity, can be associated with a growth advantage. The growing number of yeast proteins that can switch to a heritable [PRION(+)] form represents diverse and metabolically penetrating cellular functions, suggesting that the [PRION(+)] state in yeast is a functional one, albeit rarely found in nature. In this chapter, we introduce the biochemical and genetic properties of fungal prions, many of which are shared by the mammalian prion protein PrP, and then outline the major contributions that studies on fungal prions have made to prion biology.
对于哺乳动物和真菌朊病毒蛋白，构象模板驱动仅由蛋白质感染性的现象。蛋白质构象转化为其可传播的朊病毒状态与宿主细胞生理学的变化有关。在哺乳动物中，这种变化与疾病同义，而在真菌中，通常不会观察到对宿主的明显不利影响。相反，真菌朊病毒可以作为部分功能丧失表型的遗传表观遗传调节剂。在环境挑战的存在下，具有表型可塑性资源的朊病毒状态[PRION(+)]可以与生长优势相关。越来越多的能够转变为可遗传[PRION(+)]形式的酵母蛋白代表了多样化和代谢渗透的细胞功能，这表明酵母中的[PRION(+)]状态是一种功能性状态，尽管在自然界中很少发现。在本章中，我们介绍了真菌朊病毒的生化和遗传特性，其中许多特性与哺乳动物朊病毒蛋白 PrP 共享，然后概述了真菌朊病毒研究对朊病毒生物学的主要贡献。
