A microscopic discovery will not only enable scientists to understand the microbial world around us but could also provide a new way to control CRISPR-Cas biotechnologies.
An international team of researchers led by Professor Peter Fineran from the University of Otago and Dr Rafael Pinilla-Redondo from the University of Copenhagen has published a study in the prestigious journal Nature revealing new way viruses suppress the CRISPR-Cas immune systems of bacteria.
"The interesting thing is that phages have evolved different ways to overcome these defence systems – it's like an evolutionary arms race. Bacteria have CRISPR-Cas so the phages have developed anti-CRISPRs, which enables them to block the immune complexes of the bacteria. "Phages have components of bacterial CRISPR-Cas systems in their own genomes. They use these as molecular mimics for their own benefit to silence the immune system of bacteria and allow phage replication," he says.
"To harness the potential of CRISPR-Cas technologies, it is important to be able to control it, turn it on and off, and tune it, improving its accuracy and therapeutic benefit. Related Stories"Being able to create a bespoke anti-CRISPR will be a powerful option to have in the toolbox." Professor Fineran says.
"The discovery is exciting for the scientific community because it provides a greater understanding of how CRISPR-Cas defences can be stopped," he says. "What we've discovered is a whole new way that phages can stop CRISPR-Cas systems," Dr Mayo-Muñoz says. The group also found that when the phage loads RNA repeats onto the CRISPR-Cas proteins, not all of the right proteins load, forming a non-functional complex.
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