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J Virol. 1990 July; 64(7): 3265-3268

Presence of mitochondrial D-loop DNA in scrapie-infected brain preparations enriched for the prion protein.

Department of Veterinary Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706.

ABSTRACT

The prion preparation has, in recent years, been the focal point of scrapie research. The inability to identify agent-specific nucleic acids in this sample has led to the formulation of the infectious protein or prion hypothesis. In this study, we analyzed three different prion protein-enriched preparations and found all to contain significant amounts of mitochondrial nucleic acid. Southern blot analyses indicated that they are enriched for a specific component of the mitochondrial genome, the single-stranded displacement loop fragment. Our results suggest that if mitochondrial nucleic acids are involved in scrapie infection, it is the displacement loop fragment that is specifically responsible.

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