Yeast Prions: Discovery, Nature, Cellular Manipulation and Implication

Prion is simply an infectious protein, and it occurs spontaneously without any well-defined reason. Once prions occurred, they mostly propagated in biophysically very stable amyloid form with self-templating mechanism. Human and mammalian prion results in untreatable and even fatal brain disorders, thus study of prion and its pathology extremely difficult. However, since the first discovery of two prions in model microorganism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, studies about prion biology, host physiology affected by prion or prion disease have facilitated. Moreover, many attempts to understand human and mammalian prion diseases were applicated based on what have done from yeast-prion system. In this review, progressive advances, from early experiment recognitions about prion even before actual proof to current advances in prion research, will be discussed, and from the fundamentals, such as yeast prion manipulation, prion biology including prion domain and transmission, to in-depth achievements of prion amyloid structure and anti-prion systems will be presented. Lastly, the impact of yeast prion study on other kingdom such as bacteria and human biomedical research, and recent development of basic cellular physiology.