The researchers suggest this kind of mutation could be how the prions cross between species naturally.
The cross-species interactions were brought about by computer scientists at University College London (UCL) and the University of Barcelona.
Some of these viruses have also been reported to cross the species barrier and cause disease or sub-clinical infections in humans.
One group of researchers has thus decided to cross the species barrier and test its models on another highly social mammal, the dolphin.
Even though this was test-tube research and the new strain has not yet been shown to be infectious in animals, the scientists involved say it offers important clues as to how prion diseases cross between species.
Mr Schwartz is a former director of the Institut Pasteur in France, and his book maps out with great clarity the scientific investigation into how scrapie a disease that has long been known to afflict sheep came to cross the species barrier to cows, and then from cows to humans.
For example, one gleaning bat species, the Bechstein's bat (Myotis bechsteinii), is less likely to cross roads than other bat species that forage in open areas, suggesting the noise of the traffic could fragment their hunting grounds.
Remarkably, though, when it comes time to lay their own eggs, the female of the species will typically cross the ocean to return to precisely the same beach where she may have hatched 15 years earlier.
Around 400 species of lichen, which is a cross between a fungus and an algae, grow in the reserve.
Or maybe we simply out-competed them for limited resources, just as we have nearly every species that has had the bad luck to cross our path.
The actual moment when a "daughter" species can (or will) no longer cross-breed with the population from which it sprang (the definition of speciation) is almost impossible to pinpoint, let alone to witness.
WSJ: Matt Ridley on the Possible Formation of a Species | Mind & Matter
The primary complaint driving this move: construction of a border fence would cut off cross-border populations of the same endangered jaguar and ocelot species from breeding with one another.
Since no plausible evidence has yet emerged of risks to human health from eating GM food, the environmentalists' main remaining objection is that GM plants may cross-pollinate others, spreading their alien genes to other species with unpredictable environmental effects.
Outlined Monday by Gore economic policy adviser Laura Tyson, the organization would provide nations with a permanent forum similar to the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the International Labor Organization (ILO) to tackle cross-border disputes that affect the health of forests, oceans and endangered species.
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