The Mutability of Yeast Prions.

Prions replicate by a self-templating mechanism. Infidelity in the process can lead to the emergence of new infectious structures, referred to as variants or strains. The question of whether prions are prone to mis-templating is not completely answered.

Mutable yeast prion variants are stabilized by a defective Hsp104 chaperone.

Gorkovskiy et al. observed that many [PSI ] prion isolates, obtained in yeast with the mutant Hsp104 chaperone, propagate poorly in wild-type cells and suggested that Hsp104 is part of the cellular anti-prion system, curing many nascent [PSI ] variants. Here, we argue that the concept may require reassessment.

A complete catalog of wild-type Sup35 prion variants and their protein-only propagation.

Twenty-three prion variants of the wild-type Sup35 protein are obtained, including 19 novel ones and 4 previously documented, namely, VH, VK, VL, and W8. Their uniqueness and non-composite nature are demonstrated. Specific infectivity is generated de novo for most variants by adding prion particles to solutions of a purified Sup35 N-terminal fragment, thereby supporting the protein-only composition.

Forms and abundance of chaperone proteins influence yeast prion variant competition.

[PSI ] variants are different infectious conformations of the same Sup35 protein. We show that when [PSI ] variants VK and VL co-infect a dividing host, only one prevails in the end and the host genetic background is involved in winner selection. In the 5V-H19 background, the VK variant dominates over the VL variant.

Amino Acid Proximities in Two Sup35 Prion Strains Revealed by Chemical Cross-linking.

Strains of the yeast prion [PSI] are different folding patterns of the same Sup35 protein, which stacks up periodically to form a prion fiber. Chemical cross-linking is employed here to probe different fiber structures assembled with a mutant Sup35 fragment. The photo-reactive cross-linker, p-benzoyl-l-phenylalanine (pBpa), was biosynthetically incorporated into bacterially prepared recombinant Sup(1-61)-GFP, containing the first 61 residues of Sup35, followed by the green fluorescent protein.

W8, a new Sup35 prion strain, transmits distinctive information with a conserved assembly scheme.

Prion strains are different self-propagating conformers of the same infectious protein. Three strains of the [PSI] prion, infectious forms of the yeast Sup35 protein, have been previously characterized in our laboratory. Here we report the discovery of a new [PSI] strain, named W8.

Inter-allelic prion propagation reveals conformational relationships among a multitude of [PSI] strains.

Immense diversity of prion strains is observed, but its underlying mechanism is less clear. Three [PSI] prion strains--named VH, VK, and VL--were previously isolated in the wild-type yeast genetic background. Here we report the generation and characterization of eight new [PSI] isolates, obtained by propagating the wild-type strains with Sup35 proteins containing single amino-acid alterations.

Strain-specific sequences required for yeast [PSI+] prion propagation.

Amyloid polymorphism underlies the prion strain phenomenon where a single protein polypeptide adopts different chain-folding patterns to form self-propagating cross-beta structures. Three strains of the yeast prion [PSI], namely [VH], [VK], and [VL], have been previously characterized and are amyloid conformers of the yeast translation termination factor Sup35. Here we define specific sequences of the Sup35 protein that are necessary for in vivo propagation of each of these prion strains.

Transformation of yeast by infectious prion particles.

We present methods to prepare infectious Sup35 protein aggregates and use them for genetic transformation of yeast. The protein aggregates are prepared from bacterially expressed recombinant protein, which is converted to amyloid fibers by extended incubation or by nucleated growth using yeast prion particles as seeds. The aggregates are introduced into yeast by a modified spheroplast transformation protocol.

Strain-specific morphologies of yeast prion amyloid fibrils.

Mass per length (mpl) measurements on single amyloid fibrils that specifically propagate the [VH], [VK], and [VL] strains of the yeast prion [PSI] reveal unanticipated differences in their structures. Many fibrils have approximately 1.0 prion molecule per 4.

Protein-only transmission of three yeast prion strains.

Key questions regarding the molecular nature of prions are how different prion strains can be propagated by the same protein and whether they are only protein. Here we demonstrate the protein-only nature of prion strains in a yeast model, the [PSI] genetic element that enhances the read-through of nonsense mutations in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Infectious fibrous aggregates containing a Sup35 prion-determining amino-terminal fragment labelled with green fluorescent protein were purified from yeast harbouring distinctive prion strains.