Molecular cloning of a candidate chicken prion protein.

Abstract

Fractions enriched for acetylcholine receptor-inducing activity from chicken brain were found to contain a protein that was -30% homologous with mmalian prion proteins [Harris, D.

New insights into cellular prion protein (PrPc) functions: The “ying and yang” of a relevant protein

“…However, alignments of human and mammalian PRNP sequences indicate that codons located between residues 90 and 130 influence the transmissibility of prions in mammals, including humans (Schatzl et al, 1995). In addition, some paralogue genes have been described in chicken, amphibians, reptiles and fish (Gabriel et al, 1992;Simonic et al, 2000;Strumbo et al, 2001;Suzuki et al, 2002) 2. Tissue and cellular expression of PrP c : from the whole organism to the neuronal synapse.…”

Metal‐dependent α‐helix formation promoted by the glycine‐rich octapeptide region of prion protein

“…The protein found in the PrP sc amyloid, sometimes designated PrP 27-30, lacks the N-terminal region due to proteolytic truncation and it is considered that the N-terminal region is not directly related to the amyloid formation [13]. However, the octapeptide repeat is highly conserved among mammalian PrP c' proteins [14], implying some functional and structural roles of the octapeptide. A recent mass spectrometric study has shown that the octapeptide repeat provides a binding site for divalent metal ions, preferentially for Cu(II) [15].…”

Complete Genomic Sequence and Analysis of the Prion Protein Gene Region from Three Mammalian Species

“…The presence of the human and mouse PrP genes within conserved syntenic groups (Sparkes et al 1986) and the presence of a PrP gene in chicken (Gabriel et al 1992) argue that the PrP gene existed before the speciation of mammals. In mammals, DNA sequences of the ORFs encoding PrP generally exhibit ∼90% similarity.…”

“…As expected, the degree of similarity at the amino acid level increases to >95% when PrPs of different primates are compared (Schätzl et al 1995) but is much lower when human PrP is compared with that of a marsupial (∼70%) (Windl et al 1995). An even lower degree of homology is found when human PrP is compared with that of the chicken (∼30%) (Harris et al 1989;Gabriel et al 1992). Attempts to find PrP-related genes in lower eukaryotes have, to date, been unsuccessful (Oesch et al 1991).…”

“…In all species studied, the PrP ORFs encode proteins of ∼250 amino acids. All PrP molecules seem to be post-translationally modified by removal of an amino-terminal signal peptide, cleavage of a carboxy-terminal signal sequence upon addition of a GPI anchor, and addition of two or three Asn-linked sugar chains (Stahl et al 1987;Gabriel et al 1992).…”