TY - JOUR
T1 - CRISPR-cas systems
T2 - Prokaryotes upgrade to adaptive immunity
AU - Barrangou, Rodolphe
AU - Marraffini, Luciano A.
N1 - Funding Information:
R.B. is supported by startup funds from North Carolina State University. L.A.M. is supported by the Searle Scholars Program, the Rita Allen Scholars Program, an Irma T. Hirschl Award, a Sinsheimer Foundation Award, and a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (1DP2AI104556-01). We are grateful to Daniel Mucida (The Rockefeller University) for critical reading of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank their many colleagues and collaborators in the CRISPR field for their insights into these fantastic molecular systems.
PY - 2014/4/24
Y1 - 2014/4/24
N2 - Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), and associated proteins (Cas) comprise the CRISPR-Cas system, which confers adaptive immunity against exogenic elements in many bacteria and most archaea. CRISPR-mediated immunization occurs through the uptake of DNA from invasive genetic elements such as plasmids and viruses, followed by its integration into CRISPR loci. These loci are subsequently transcribed and processed into small interfering RNAs that guide nucleases for specific cleavage of complementary sequences. Conceptually, CRISPR-Cas shares functional features with the mammalian adaptive immune system, while also exhibiting characteristics of Lamarckian evolution. Because immune markers spliced from exogenous agents are integrated iteratively in CRISPR loci, they constitute a genetic record of vaccination events and reflect environmental conditions and changes over time. Cas endonucleases, which can be reprogrammed by small guide RNAs have shown unprecedented potential and flexibility for genome editing and can be repurposed for numerous DNA targeting applications including transcriptional control.
AB - Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), and associated proteins (Cas) comprise the CRISPR-Cas system, which confers adaptive immunity against exogenic elements in many bacteria and most archaea. CRISPR-mediated immunization occurs through the uptake of DNA from invasive genetic elements such as plasmids and viruses, followed by its integration into CRISPR loci. These loci are subsequently transcribed and processed into small interfering RNAs that guide nucleases for specific cleavage of complementary sequences. Conceptually, CRISPR-Cas shares functional features with the mammalian adaptive immune system, while also exhibiting characteristics of Lamarckian evolution. Because immune markers spliced from exogenous agents are integrated iteratively in CRISPR loci, they constitute a genetic record of vaccination events and reflect environmental conditions and changes over time. Cas endonucleases, which can be reprogrammed by small guide RNAs have shown unprecedented potential and flexibility for genome editing and can be repurposed for numerous DNA targeting applications including transcriptional control.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.molcel.2014.03.011
DO - 10.1016/j.molcel.2014.03.011
M3 - Review article
C2 - 24766887
AN - SCOPUS:84899134190
SN - 1097-2765
VL - 54
SP - 234
EP - 244
JO - Molecular cell
JF - Molecular cell
IS - 2
ER -
