A Programmable Dual-RNA–Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) systems provide bacteria and archaea with adaptive immunity against viruses and plasmids by using CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) to guide the silencing of invading nucleic acids. We show here that in a subset of these systems, the mature crRNA that is base-paired to trans-activating crRNA (tracrRNA) forms a … Read more

“RISC” of Bacteria and Archaea

Restriction-modification systems, abortive-phage phenotypes, toxin-antitoxins and other innate defense systems, in the past, have been shown in familiar chapters in typical microbiology textbook, while now what if I say in prokaryotes world “RISC” can serve a role for new kind of antiviral defense, in addition the “RNAi” can even be engineered and designed to lead … Read more