Diverse evolutionary roots and mechanistic variations of the CRISPR-Cas systems - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

. 2016 Aug 5;353(6299):aad5147.

doi: 10.1126/science.aad5147.

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Review

Diverse evolutionary roots and mechanistic variations of the CRISPR-Cas systems

Prarthana Mohanraju et al. Science. 2016.

Abstract

Adaptive immunity had been long thought of as an exclusive feature of animals. However, the discovery of the CRISPR-Cas defense system, present in almost half of prokaryotic genomes, proves otherwise. Because of the everlasting parasite-host arms race, CRISPR-Cas has rapidly evolved through horizontal transfer of complete loci or individual modules, resulting in extreme structural and functional diversity. CRISPR-Cas systems are divided into two distinct classes that each consist of three types and multiple subtypes. We discuss recent advances in CRISPR-Cas research that reveal elaborate molecular mechanisms and provide for a plausible scenario of CRISPR-Cas evolution. We also briefly describe the latest developments of a wide range of CRISPR-based applications.

Copyright © 2016, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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