Prion-like domains as epigenetic regulators, scaffolds for subcellular organization, and drivers of neurodegenerative disease
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UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Cell and Developmental BiologyDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2016-09-15Keywords
ALSDisaggregase
Phase transition
Prion
Prion-like domains
RNA-binding proteins
Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology
Cell and Developmental Biology
Cells
Fungi
Nervous System Diseases
Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases
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Key challenges faced by all cells include how to spatiotemporally organize complex biochemistry and how to respond to environmental fluctuations. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae harnesses alternative protein folding mediated by yeast prion domains (PrDs) for rapid evolution of new traits in response to environmental stress. Increasingly, it is appreciated that low complexity domains similar in amino acid composition to yeast PrDs (prion-like domains; PrLDs) found in metazoa have a prominent role in subcellular cytoplasmic organization, especially in relation to RNA homeostasis. In this review, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the role of prions in enabling rapid adaptation to environmental stress in yeast. We also present the complete list of human proteins with PrLDs and discuss the prevalence of the PrLD in nucleic-acid binding proteins that are often connected to neurodegenerative disease, including: ataxin 1, ataxin 2, FUS, TDP-43, TAF15, EWSR1, hnRNPA1, and hnRNPA2. Recent paradigm-shifting advances establish that PrLDs undergo phase transitions to liquid states, which contribute to the structure and biophysics of diverse membraneless organelles. This structural functionality of PrLDs, however, simultaneously increases their propensity for deleterious protein-misfolding events that drive neurodegenerative disease. We suggest that even these PrLD-misfolding events are not irreversible and can be mitigated by natural or engineered protein disaggregases, which could have important therapeutic applications. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI:RNA Metabolism in Disease.Source
Brain Res. 2016 Sep 15;1647:9-18. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2016.02.037. Epub 2016 Mar 18. Link to article on publisher's site
DOI
10.1016/j.brainres.2016.02.037Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/26506PubMed ID
26996412Related Resources
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Copyright 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Distribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.brainres.2016.02.037
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Copyright 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).