Cellular factors important for the de novo formation of yeast prions

Abstract Prions represent an unusual structural form of a protein that is 'infectious'. In mammals, prions are associated with fatal neurodegenerative diseases such as CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease), while in fungi they act as novel epigenetic regulators of phenotype. Even though most of the human prion diseases arise spontaneously, we still know remarkably little about how infectious prions form de novo