Comments on: Evolution without genes – prions can evolve and adapt too

By: cassie

cassie — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:45:53 +0000

I am writing a paper for a class in college regarding the evolution of lower forms of life. Even though prions might not be considered alive I wanted to talk about how there was evidence for their evolution in vitro regardless of them not possessing a nucleic acid genome – i.e. the data published by Li et al
My search for information let me to this blog. Confusingly, I find people arguing about prions do having a nucleic acid genome.
I understand that my question might come several years too late. But, is there any new data that proves prions indeed have a nucleic acid genome?

By: yervand

yervand — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:44:17 +0000

Microbiol Rev. 1990 Sep;54(3):242-6.
The search for scrapie agent nucleic acid.
Aiken JM, Marsh RF.

Department of Veterinary Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706.

By: yervand

yervand — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:35:56 +0000

PEER-REWIED, PUBLISHED “FACTS”

Ciba Found Symp. 1988;135:209-23.
Search for a scrapie-specific nucleic acid: a progress report.
Oesch B, Groth DF, Prusiner SB, Weissmann C.

Comparison of RNA from healthy and scrapie-infected hamster brain.
German TL, McMillan BC, Castle BE, Dees C, Wade WF, Marsh RF.
J Gen Virol. 1985 Apr;66 ( Pt 4):839-44.

Presence of mitochondrial D-loop DNA in scrapie-infected brain preparations enriched for the prion protein.
Aiken JM, Williamson JL, Borchardt LM, Marsh RF.
J Virol. 1990 Jul;64(7):3265-8.

Search for a prion-specific nucleic acid.
Safar JG, Kellings K, Serban A, Groth D, Cleaver JE, Prusiner SB, Riesner D.
J Virol. 2005 Aug;79(16):10796-806.

Visualization of viral candidate cDNAs in infectious brain fractions from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by representational difference analysis.
Dron M, Manuelidis L.
J Neurovirol. 1996 Aug;2(4):240-8.

Nuclease-resistant polyadenylated RNAs of significant size are detected by PCR in highly purified Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease preparations.
Akowitz A, Sklaviadis T, Manuelidis EE, Manuelidis L.
Microb Pathog. 1990 Jul;9(1):33-45.

A cellular gene encodes scrapie PrP 27-30 protein.
Oesch B, Westaway D, Wälchli M, McKinley MP, Kent SB, Aebersold R, Barry RA, Tempst P, Teplow DB, Hood LE, et al.
Cell. 1985 Apr;40(4):735-46.

Cell. 1985 Apr;40(4):725-7.
Focusing on the nature of the scrapie agent.
Robertson HD, Branch AD, Dahlberg JE.

Novel proteinaceous infectious particles cause scrapie.
Prusiner SB.
Science. 1982 Apr 9;216(4542):136-44.

By: lester

lester — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:39:58 +0000

Nice try! But, that article isn’t even published; let alone peer-reviewed. Who are you trying to fool?
First, you reference a website whose author most likely suffers from some type of mental disorder (note his mention of his “mental pain”). Next, you reference nature precedings (Its own title stating “nature precedings Pre-publication and preliminary findings”). Are you going to cite any article that has actually been reviewed and published? Or, do you just enjoy wasting people’s time?

Note that the first two comments on the paper you linked are from Adriano Aguzzi and Charles Weissmann. Both experts in the field of prions. Both whom say nothing positive about the study.

By: yervand

yervand — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:57:37 +0000

http://precedings.nature.com/documents/3344/version/1

By: lester

lester — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:24:13 +0000

Yervand,

So, instead of posting a peer-reviewed paper as proof to your point, you cite a website that states that there is something wrong with the peer-review process. My belief is that you did not read the rest of that website. I guess I will have to fill you in. Read this page about the author’s biography (written by the author himself): http://www.nov55.com/abt.html

If reading that doesn’t raise a flag, then go to this webpage were they breakdown some of Mr. Novak’s claims: http://moonflake.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/midweek-cuckoogary-novak/

I wonder if you – yourself – actually believe the information on the link you posted; seeing as you – yourself – use the peer-review process to publish articles:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19478942

By: yervand

yervand — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:35:54 +0000

http://www.nov55.com/prv.html

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:10:56 +0000

Yervand - From your name and email, I take it that you are Yervand Karapetyan from Scripps, and actually part of Weissmann's lab. In which case, I am confused about your comment and I'd like to point you to your own group website, which says "Prions are infectious agents that consist of protein and are devoid of a nucleic acid-based genome." If you disagree, perhaps you'd like to cite an actual peer-reviewed paper rather than a letter by a school teacher in response to a peer-reviewed paper.

By: yervand

yervand — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:42:58 +0000

People for one second please wake up! Where is the proof of “prion” being a protein only infectious agent devoid of any RNA?!!

Please see the link bellow:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/eletters/327/5967/869

Could Prion Protein Assumptions Engender Misleading Sensational Conclusions?
Igor V. Zaitsev (19 March 2010)
The Backwards Evolution of Prions
Laura Manuelidis (19 March 2010)

E-Letter responses to:
reports:
Jiali Li, Shawn Browning, Sukhvir P. Mahal, Anja M. Oelschlegel, and Charles Weissmann
Darwinian Evolution of Prions in Cell Culture
Science 2010; 327: 869-872 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
E-Letters: Submit a response to this article
PUBLISHED E-LETTER RESPONSES:

Could Prion Protein Assumptions Engender Misleading Sensational Conclusions?
Igor V. Zaitsev (19 March 2010)
The Backwards Evolution of Prions
Laura Manuelidis (19 March 2010)

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/eletters/327/5967/869

By: Alex Besogonov

Alex Besogonov — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:05:51 +0000

“No, YOU look it up in “the” dictionary, please, and then link to the particular dictionary definition that you think supports this assertion.”
Sorry for ‘the’, English is not my native language and articles is my weak spot. Here’s the definition, anyway: “Genome is the entirety of an organism’s hereditary information”.
It’s that simple. There’s no mention of DNA or RNA or folding pattern of a peptide chain. In fact, you can make artificial organism whose genome will be encoded in a bit of silicon.
“Prions are not “genetic material.” They are not inherited in any meaningful sense.
What is apparently/putatively/allegedly passed on is a folding pattern. So far what I understand is that there is variation in folding patterns and that different patterns tend to accumulate in diffeent tissues. ”
Prions ARE a genetic material. It is ‘inherited’, prions pass their folding patterns to their ‘offspings’.
Prions are a bit special in that their ‘phenotype’ is also their ‘genotype’. But it’s not that different from viriods, for example.