Putative Prion State Dynamics in RNA-Modifying Enzymes
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Date
2021
Authors
Evarts, Jacob
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Prions are primarily associated with fatal neurodegenerative diseases, such as Mad Cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Recent evidence, however, suggests that prions also comprise an additional class of epigenetic mechanism that is biologically beneficial. From an evolutionary standpoint, the ability to change phenotypes without requiring changes to the genome, as prions do, would be hugely beneficial in fluctuating environments. Through overexpressing proteins and introducing environmental stressors, two techniques known to increase de novo prion formation, we performed a large-scale screen of many RNA-modifying enzymes in budding yeast to test if they harbor beneficial prionogenic behavior. From this screen, we have identified five induced prion-like states. We show that many of these putative prions have characteristics consistent with prion-based epigenetics. Prion-based inheritance expands on the central dogma of biology, supporting the idea that prions are an epigenetic mechanism for passing on heritable traits.
Description
43 pages
Keywords
Prions, RNA-Modifying Enzymes, Budding Yeast, Computational Biology