Defend why the discovery of prions and viroids changes our view on what it takes to be an infectious particle. Be sure to explain the feature of each that distinguishes them from traditional viruses
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Traditionally viruses are thought of as protein-encapsulated genetic elements that exclusively replicate inside a living cell yet prions and viroids each lack one of these characteristics. While neither is a true virus, both are infectious particles, so it is clear a diversity of infectious particles exist. Prions lack nucleotide sequences altogether but one could also argue the protein conformation PrPSC itself serves as the blueprint to make available other PrPSC misfolded proteins. The gene for the prion, present in host cells, encodes for PrPC which is functionally different than its propagative and infectious form. Viroids on the other hand lack protein in their structure and their RNA genomes also do not encode for proteins. Viroids being infectious exclusively as RNA, and prions being infectious exclusively as protein expands our knowledge on the minimal requirements to be infectious.
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