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what a way to go out https://t.co/YWUs8c1QJp
maybe we could bioengineer production of a prionase and start falsely telling ppl its an abortificant so the waterways get choked with it and humanity is saved from two crises at once https://t.co/kJVdoxYh9x
https://t.co/v2NjhXiXdJ https://t.co/2wyvxgdoDi
oh sick we've already cloned a prionase into soil bacteria and released them all right well that helps a lot tbh https://t.co/KixnAjYm85
the basic issue is, prions are absurdly stable many proteins are delicate and require special handling to function, but prions apparently are astonishingly resilient to adverse environments so having a prion-digesting enzyme ("prionase") is important https://t.co/XNW3XU8xWq
turns out the answer is "beta sheets" proteins are long chains that end up in complicated shapes, with semi-regularly-occurring motifs. one such motif is the beta sheet dw if this doesnt make sense. basically "its complicated and not that interesting" https://t.co/x6ZuXraDly https://t.co/zeIgZkX2Qt
by the way the fact that prionases apparently evolved and are widespread(?) in soil bacteria might indicate that prions have been available as a source of nutrition to soil bacteria for some time which in turn indicates that prions have perhaps existed for millennia or longer https://t.co/gDAKc3sTbF
horror aside, "prions have been with us for untold centuries" would in a sense be a good story bc it would demonstrate equilibrium rather than relentless positive feedback cycles anyway tho turns out prionases are just keratinases acting promiscuously https://t.co/hbrzorNm4a