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Review
. 2015 Oct:117:119-28.
doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2015.03.025. Epub 2015 Apr 10.

The CRISPR-Cas immune system: biology, mechanisms and applications

Devashish Rath  1 , Lina Amlinger  2 , Archana Rath  3 , Magnus Lundgren  4
Affiliations
Free article
Review

The CRISPR-Cas immune system: biology, mechanisms and applications

Devashish Rath et al. Biochimie. 2015 Oct.
Free article

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; Cas3; Cas9; Cascade; Cmr/Csm.

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