When looking at non-cellular organisms, we observed the properties of viruses and prions. Viruses were surprising in that they must have a host to replicate themselves. But what I found much more interesting is that prions have absolutely no genetic material, only proteins but are still able to replicate. Even though this tiny organism can't reproduce on it's own it still has the ability to infect other organisms. I was so interested in the prion that I did a little more research on the organism and found that prion is a compound word derived from the initial letters of the words proteinaceous and infectious, with -on added by analogy to the word virion.
I just thought I would share that little bit of information on the prion that I had acquired.
Kaci Stoneburner
