CRISPR Provides Acquired Resistance Against Viruses in Prokaryotes

2007/03/22 by Rodolphe Barrangou, Christophe Fremaux, Hélène Deveau +5 · 8 citations
Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions #CRISPR and Genetic Engineering #RNA and protein synthesis mechanisms

paper · doi:10.1126/science.1138140

openalex publication_date 2007/03/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are a distinctive feature of the genomes of most Bacteria and Archaea and are thought to be involved in resistance to bacteriophages. We found that, after viral challenge, bacteria integrated new spacers derived from phage genomic sequences. Removal or addition of particular spacers modified the phage-resistance phenotype of the cell. Thus, CRISPR, together with associated cas genes, provided resistance against phages, and resistance specificity is determined by spacer-phage sequence similarity.

Citations

• Intervening Sequences of Regularly Spaced Prokaryotic Repeats Derive from Foreign Genetic Elements
• Here a virus, there a virus, everywhere the same virus?

Cited by

• Small CRISPR RNAs Guide Antiviral Defense in Prokaryotes
• CRISPR-Cas: biology, mechanisms and relevance
• Genetically Engineered Phages: a Review of Advances over the Last Decade
• Genome editing in Drosophila melanogaster: from basic genome engineering to the multipurpose CRISPR-Cas9 system
• The rise of regulatory RNA
• Environmental Genomics Reveals a Single-Species Ecosystem Deep Within Earth
• Applications of CRISPR–Cas systems in neuroscience
• Immune system [wikipedia]