Wikipedia

A proteinaceous infectious particle, or prion, () is an infectious agent composed primarily of protein. The word prion, coined in 1982 by Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, is a portmanteau derived from the words protein and infection. Prions are the cause of a number of diseases in a variety of mammals, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as "mad cow disease") in cattle and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. In general usage, prion refers to the Kochs postulates|theoretical unit of infection. All known prion diseases affect the structure of the brain or other neural tissue and all are currently...

Original article

Genomics from NCBI

Map from GBIF