Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Biology of CRISPR-Cas: Backward and Forward

2018; Cell Press; Volume: 172; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cell.2017.11.032

1097-4172

Frank Hille, Hagen Richter, Shi Pey Wong, Majda Bratovič, Sarah Ressel, Emmanuelle Charpentier,

Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research

In bacteria and archaea, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins constitute an adaptive immune system against phages and other foreign genetic elements. Here, we review the biology of the diverse CRISPR-Cas systems and the major progress achieved in recent years in understanding the underlying mechanisms of the three stages of CRISPR-Cas immunity: adaptation, crRNA biogenesis, and interference. The ecology and regulation of CRISPR-Cas in the context of phage infection, the roles of these systems beyond immunity, and the open questions that propel the field forward are also discussed.