CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in prokaryotes

Rodolphe Barrangou, Christophe Fremaux, Hélène Deveau, Melissa Richards, Patrick Boyaval, Sylvain Moineau, Dennis A. Romero, Philippe Horvath

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4654 Scopus citations

Abstract

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are a distinctive feature of the genomes of most Bacteria and Archaea and are thought to be involved in resistance to bacteriophages. We found that, after viral challenge, bacteria integrated new spacers derived from phage genomic sequences. Removal or addition of particular spacers modified the phage-resistance phenotype of the cell. Thus, CRISPR, together with associated cas genes, provided resistance against phages, and resistance specificity is determined by spacer-phage sequence similarity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1709-1712
Number of pages4
JournalScience
Volume315
Issue number5819
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 23 2007

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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