Clearing Hurdles: Prions Know How to Do It

INDUCING DISTINCT YEAST PRION STRAINS:©2004 Nature Publishing Group[PSI+] using amyloid fibers derived from a recombinant Sup35p fragment [Sup-NM] at 4°C, 23°C and 37°C. White and pink and/or sectored colonies are strong and weak [PSI+] variants, respectively. (Nature, 428:323–7, 2004)In the relative quiet following the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United Kingdom, BSE returned to the headlines recently with a sole case found in the United States a

Nicole Johnston

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[PSI+] using amyloid fibers derived from a recombinant Sup35p fragment [Sup-NM] at 4°C, 23°C and 37°C. White and pink and/or sectored colonies are strong and weak [PSI+] variants, respectively. (Nature, 428:323–7, 2004)

In the relative quiet following the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United Kingdom, BSE returned to the headlines recently with a sole case found in the United States and new strains of BSE prion protein identified in France, Italy, and Japan. And, in May, French researchers said they found scrapie prion in sheep muscle, showing for the first time that prions have a direct path to the grocery store.¹

While these events made headlines, other discoveries in the prion world also were occurring. Researchers have started, and only started, to get to the core of some fundamental questions involving prions. One of these is whether infectivity can be established in mammals using ...

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