Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!stanford.edu!csli!cphoenix From: cphoenix@csli.Stanford.EDU (Chris Phoenix) Newsgroups: sci.bio Subject: Re: Reconstructing cells from DNA Message-ID: <18951@csli.Stanford.EDU> Date: 30 Apr 91 20:07:34 GMT Article-I.D.: csli.18951 References: <79788@bu.edu.bu.edu> <18841@csli.Stanford.EDU> <80395@bu.edu.bu.edu> Organization: Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford U. Lines: 32 In article <80395@bu.edu.bu.edu> colby@bu-bio.UUCP (Chris Colby) writes: >In article <18841@csli.Stanford.EDU> cphoenix@csli.Stanford.EDU (Chris Phoenix) writes: > I assume you are talking about the putative cause of mad >cow disease (I just read in Discover about this). Do you have any >scientific references that confirm they are autonomously replicating? >(BTW, it's a question not a challenge) Yes, that's what I had in mind. I think they also cause some Alzheimer's- like disease in sheep. No, I don't have any scientific references, but I did read a model of how it might work on the net a while back, in sci.chem I think: The prion protein is a trimer, but I'll give the analogous model for a dimer. (A dimer is made from two proteins that fit together, and a trimer from three (as I understand it)). So: You have two proteins [ and ], and normally they come together to create []. But when they are "prionized" they create [ which of course can lengthen itself, break apart to ] form two smaller chains and so replicate itself, [ and tie up lots of protein that should be making []. ] >>control of fetal growth with interest. But I haven't seen anyone >>address the question of where the hormones come from. I think all of >>them will be coded for by the DNA of the original fertilized egg. > > Hormones are proteins coded for by genes. I know *what* they are... I was wondering if some hormones might be put in the [macro] egg by the chicken, and so be part of the environment no matter what DNA is put into the egg [cell]. -- Chris Phoenix cphoenix@csli.stanford.edu #insert #insert #insert