Functional diversity in bacterial defense mechanism against viral invasion
Friday, December 6, 2013 - 10:01
in Biology & Nature
Bacteria may lack a true immune system, but this does not leave them defenseless against bacteriophage viruses and other pathogens. A system of genomic sequence elements called clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and various CRISPR-associated proteins (Cas) help to recognize and destroy foreign genetic material delivered by such invaders.