Some bacterial CRISPRs can snip RNA, too
Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - 18:30
in Biology & Nature
Did you know the CRISPR/Cas9 system was derived from bacteria, which use it to fight off foreign invaders such as viruses? It allows many bacteria to snip and store segments of DNA from an invading virus, which they can then use to 'remember' and destroy DNA from similar invaders if they are encountered again. Recent work demonstrates that some bacteria also use the CRISPR/Cas system to snip and recognize segments of RNA, not just DNA.