Intrinsically Disordered Proteins Drive Emergence and Inheritance of Biological Traits.

ABSTRACT: Prions are a paradigm-shifting mechanism of inheritance in which phenotypes are encoded by self-templating protein conformations rather than nucleic acids. Here, we examine the breadth of protein-based inheritance across the yeast proteome by assessing the ability of nearly every open reading frame (ORF; ∼5,300 ORFs) to induce heritable traits. Transient overexpression of nearly 50 proteins created traits that remained heritable long after their expression returned to normal. These traits were beneficial, had prion-like patterns of inheritance, were common in wild yeasts, and could be transmitted to naive cells with protein alone. Most inducing proteins were not known prions and did not form amyloid. Instead, they are highly enriched in nucleic acid binding proteins with large intrinsicall

SUBMITTER: Chakrabortee S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5066306 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature