Elsevier

Biochimie

Volume 117, October 2015, Pages 119-128
Biochimie

Review
The CRISPR-Cas immune system: Biology, mechanisms and applications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biochi.2015.03.025Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • CRISPR-Cas, the adaptive and heritable immune system of prokaryotes is described.

  • Biological and mechanistic aspects as well as applied use are covered.

  • Unresolved issues are highlighted and suggestions for further research are provided.

Abstract

Viruses are a common threat to cellular life, not the least to bacteria and archaea who constitute the majority of life on Earth. Consequently, a variety of mechanisms to resist virus infection has evolved. A recent discovery is the adaptive immune system in prokaryotes, a type of system previously thought to be present only in vertebrates. The system, called CRISPR-Cas, provide sequence-specific adaptive immunity and fundamentally affect our understanding of virus–host interaction. CRISPR-based immunity acts by integrating short virus sequences in the cell's CRISPR locus, allowing the cell to remember, recognize and clear infections. There has been rapid advancement in our understanding of this immune system and its applications, but there are many aspects that await elucidation making the field an exciting area of research. This review provides an overview of the field and highlights unresolved issues.

Keywords

CRISPR
Cascade
Cas9
Cas3
Cmr/Csm

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