Table 1

Prions of mammals, yeast and the filamentous fungus Podospora anserina

Organism
Prion
Protein
Normal function
Prion manifestation

Mammals
TSEs
PrP
Not known
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
[URE3]
Ure2
Nitrogen catabolite repression
Derepression of nitrogen catabolism enzymes and transporters

[PSI+]
Sup35
Translation termination
Read-through of stop codons

[PIN+]
Rnq1
Not known
Rare seeding of [PSI+], other prions

[SWI+]
Swi1
Chromatin remodeling
Poor growth on glycerol, raffinose, galactose

[MCA]
Mca1
Metacaspase (suspected function in apoptosis)
Unknown

[OCT+]
Cyc8
Repression of CYC7 and other genes
Derepression of transcription

[MOT3+]
Mot3
Transcription factor
Cell-wall changes
Podospora anserina
[Het-s]
HET-s
Heterokaryon incompatibility; meiotic drive (as a prion)
Heterokaryon incompatibility; meiotic drive (as a prion)

Wickner et al. Journal of Biology 2009 8:47   doi:10.1186/jbiol148