Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Nunez JK
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4359072 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Nuñez James K JK Lee Amy S Y AS Engelman Alan A Doudna Jennifer A JA
Nature 20150218 7542
Bacteria and archaea insert spacer sequences acquired from foreign DNAs into CRISPR loci to generate immunological memory. The Escherichia coli Cas1-Cas2 complex mediates spacer acquisition in vivo, but the molecular mechanism of this process is unknown. Here we show that the purified Cas1-Cas2 complex integrates oligonucleotide DNA substrates into acceptor DNA to yield products similar to those generated by retroviral integrases and transposases. Cas1 is the catalytic subunit and Cas2 substanti ...[more]