It is unclear how important CRISPR-Cas systems are for protecting natural populations of bacteria against infections by mobile genetic elements.

ABSTRACT: Articles on CRISPR commonly open with some variant of the phrase "these short palindromic repeats and their associated endonucleases (Cas) are an adaptive immune system that exists to protect bacteria and archaea from viruses and infections with other mobile genetic elements." There is an abundance of genomic data consistent with the hypothesis that CRISPR plays this role in natural populations of bacteria and archaea, and experimental demonstrations with a few species of bacteria and their phage and plasmids show that CRISPR-Cas systems can play this role in vitro. Not at all clear are the ubiquity, magnitude, and nature of the contribution of CRISPR-Cas systems to the ecology and evolution of natural populations of microbes and the strength of selection mediated by different types of pha

SUBMITTER: Westra ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7668106 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature