Articles | Volume 3, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/pb-3-47-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/pb-3-47-2016
Review article
 | 
07 Sep 2016
Review article |  | 07 Sep 2016

Prions

Walter Bodemer

Cited articles

Bodemer, W.: Prions, Encyclopedia of Microbiology, 3rd Edn., edited by: Schaechter, M., Academic Press, Elsevier, Oxford, 689–706, 2009
Bodemer, W. and Kaup, F. J.: Comments on present-day spread and epidemiology of BSE and prion diseases, Gesundheitswesen, 66, 21–25, 2004.
Kiesel, P., Bodemer, W., Gibson, T., Zischler, H., and Kaup, F. J.: Prion infected rhesus monkeys to study differential transcription of Alu DNA elements and editing of Alu transcripts in neuronal cells and blood cells, J. Med. Primatol., 41, 176–182, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0684.2012.00535.x, 2012.
Krasemann, S., Neumann, M., Geissen, M., Bodemer, W., Kaup, F. J., Schulz-Schaeffer, W., Morel, N., Aguzzi, A., and Glatzel, M.: Preclinical deposition of pathological prion protein in muscle of experimentally infected primates, PLoS One, 11, e13906, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013906, 2010.
Krasemann, S., Mearini, G., Krämer, E., Wagenführ, K., Schulz-Schaeffer, W., Neumann, M., Bodemer, W., Kaup, F. J., Beekes, M., Carrier, L., Aguzzi, A., and Glatzel, M.: BSE-associated prion-amyloid cardiomyopathy in primates, Emerg. Infect. Dis., 19, 985–988, https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1906.120906, 2013.
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Short summary
Inheritance by DNA and RNA as genetic elements has been known for decades. However, inheritance by proteins was completely unexpected. Proteins as carrier of genetic information have been identified in yeast where non-Mendelian inheritance could not be explained by transfer of chromosomes (DNA). Prions in yeast helped to understand structure and function of mammalian prions. The rhesus monkey has been found to be a valid animal model for prion infection and the epigenetically controlled disease.
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