Figure 1.

Schematic representation of templated assembly of protein aggregates from spontaneous assembly of misfolded native protein or introduction of exogenous seeds. Briefly, native proteins (blue circles) may spontaneously misfold and subsequently propagate their misfolded conformation by templated recruitment of additional native proteins. These misfolded proteins can form oligomeric seeds (blue triangles). Misfolded seeds can continue to recruit native protein and self-assemble to form long, β-sheet-rich fibrils that ultimately form fibrillar aggregates. Alternatively, exogenous seeds (red triangles), either generated by another cell in a disease state or artificially introduced in experiments, may enter a cell and similarly recruit native proteins to form aggregates. Fibrils may also fragment into oligomers that may spur additional fibril formation within the same cell or that may spread to other cells to propagate protein misfolding and aggregation.