Theory 19/Proteinopathy
Strains Are Fidelity Against Stability
The claim
The number of prion strains an animal supports is set by the ratio of conformational stability to replication fidelity, so error-prone replication produces more strains.
01Mechanism
Strains are conformations that template their own folding; fidelity determines whether a new conformation persists as a strain or reverts.
02Predictions
- P1Strain diversity should track the ratio.
- P2Incubation time alone should mispredict.
03Refutation
Diversity tracking dose would remove fidelity.
04Why it resists the grid
Information is transmitted without nucleic acid, and the 'species' is a shape.