Tel Aviv University, Clinical Microbiology and Immunology, Sackler School of Medicine, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
RNA Biol. 2012 May;9(5):549-54. doi: 10.4161/rna.20177. Epub 2012 May 1.
Bacteria, like mammals, have to constantly defend themselves from viral attack. Like mammals, they use both innate and adaptive defense mechanisms. In this point of view we highlight the commonalities between defense systems of bacteria and mammals. Our focus is on the recently discovered bacterial adaptive immune system, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and their associated proteins (Cas). We suggest that fundamental aspects of CRISPR/Cas immunity may be viewed in light of the vast accumulated knowledge on the mammalian immune system, and propose that further insights will be revealed by thorough comparison between the systems.
细菌和哺乳动物一样，必须不断地防御病毒的攻击。与哺乳动物一样，它们使用先天和适应性防御机制。在这一观点中，我们强调了细菌和哺乳动物防御系统之间的共性。我们的重点是最近发现的细菌适应性免疫系统，即成簇规律间隔短回文重复序列（CRISPR）及其相关蛋白（Cas）。我们认为，CRISPR/Cas 免疫的基本方面可以从哺乳动物免疫系统积累的大量知识中得到阐释，并建议通过系统之间的彻底比较，揭示进一步的见解。
