Yeast prions help identify and define chaperone interaction networks.
Proteins in the cell experience various stressful conditions that can affect their ability to attain and maintain the structural conformations they need to perform effectively. Protein chaperones are an important part of a cellular protein quality control system that protects the integrity of the proteome in the face of such challenges. Chaperones from different conserved families have multiple members that cooperate to regulate each other's activity and produce machines that perform a variety of tasks. The large numbers of related chaperones with both functionally overlapping and distinct activities allows fine-tuning of the machinery for specific tasks, but presents a daunting degree of complexity. Yeast prions are misfolded forms of cellular proteins whose propagation depends on the action of protein chaperones. Studying how propagation of yeast prions is affected by alterations in functions of various chaperones provides an approach to understanding this complexity.
Michael
M
Reidy
Building 8, Room 225, 8 Center Drive, Laboratory of Biochemistry and Genetics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. reidym@mail.nih.gov.
Daniel C
DC
Masison
D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D011328:Prions / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism*; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology
D006360:Heat-Shock Proteins; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D011328:Prions; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins