Open AccessGenetic Informational RNA Is Not Required for Recombinant Prion Infectivity
Author(s) -
Fei Wang,
Zhihong Zhang,
Xinhe Wang,
Jiali Li,
Liang Zha,
Chonggang Yuan,
Charles Weissmann,
Jiyan Ma
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.617
H-Index - 292
eISSN - 1070-6321
pISSN - 0022-538X
DOI - 10.1128/jvi.06216-11
Subject(s) - infectivity , biology , recombinant dna , virology , rna , fungal prion , nucleic acid , virus , prion protein , genetics , gene , disease , phenotype , medicine , pathology
Whether a genetic informational nucleic acid is required for the infectivity of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies is central to the debate about the infectious agent. Here we report that an infectious prion formed with bacterially expressed recombinant prion protein plus synthetic polyriboadenylic acid and synthetic phospholipid 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylglycerol is competent to infect cultured cells and cause prion disease in wild-type mice. Our results show that genetic informational RNA is not required for recombinant prion infectivity.